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FALL OF Mil WIIYMPER. 



— £ . 



MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES 



IN 



VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD. 



SELECTED FROM THE NARRATIVES OF CELEBRATED TRAVELLERS. 



INTRODUCTION AND ADDITIONS, 



By J. T. HEAJDLEY, 
\\ 

4TTTHOB OF " NAPOLEON AND HIS MARSHALS," " WASHINGTON AND HIS GENE^ 
RALS," " SACKED SCENES AND SACKED MOUNTAINS," ETC., ETC 



With Forty-one Illustrations. 



NEW YORK: 

SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG, AND CO. 
1876. 



r ^ c 



Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1871, by 

CHAELES SCRIBNER AND COMPANY, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, 



RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 
PRINTED BT H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPACT. 



CONTENTS. 



VAG2 

Mountains and Mountain-climbing 1 

I. Mont Blanc 11 

II. Mont Blanc 25 

III. The Finsteraarhorn 43 

IV. The Peak of Morteratsch '. 61 

V. The Jungfiau ' .... 69 

VI. The Galenstock 92 

VII. The Matterhorn 104 

VIII. Rescue from a Crevasse 136 

IX. The Pic du Midi of the Pyrenees 146 

X. The Breche de Boland 151 

XL Mont Perdu 161 

XII. North Cape 180 

XIII. The Brocken 189 

XIV. Parnassus 198 

XV. Mount Athos 207 

XVI. Mount Elburz in the Caucasus 212 

XVII. The Taurus Mountains of Cilicia, (Bulghar-Dagh). . 218 

XVIII. Mount Lebanon 228 

XIX. Mount Ararat 240 

XX. Mount Sinai 248 

XXL Gungootree, the Sacred Source of the Ganges 257 

XXII. Adam's Peak, Ceylon 266 

XXIII. Ascent of the Gunung-Talang, Sumatra 273 

XXIV. Peter Botte, Mauritius 279 

XXV. The Peak of Teneriffe 289 



rv CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

XXVL The Sierra Nevada 298 

XXVII. Discovery of an Ancient Volcano 303 

XXVIII. The Silla of Caracas 311 

XXIX. Chimborazo 321 

XXX. Discovery of Peruvian Bark 336 

XXXI. Animal Life in Mountain Eegions . 345 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Fall of Mr. Whymper down the Matterhorn Frontispiece 

The Col du Geant , . . . 19 

The Aiguille du Midi 27 

Mont Blanc, from the Brevent 32 

The Finsteraarhorn 50 

Avalanche on the Peak of Morteratsch 64 

The Jungfrau 78 

The Matterhorn . 105 

The Galenstock. Fall of M. Dollfus 114 y 

Fatal Accident on the Matterhorn 129 

Rescue from a Crevasse 142 

The Pic du Midi 147 

The Breche de Eoland 154 J 

Mont Perdu 164 

The North Cape 180 ' 

Island of Lofoden, North Cape 183 

The Island of Mageroe, North Cape 186 

The Brocken 190 

The Brocken, Hexentanzplatz 194 

Mount Parnassus 200 

Mount Athos 208 

Mount Elburz 212 

A Gorge in the Taurus 222 

Mount Lebanon, Cascade of Nahr-el-Leben 232 

Mount Ararat 242 

Mount Sinai 245 

View in the Himalayas 259 



VI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Gungootree, the Himalayas 264 

Adam's Peak, Ceylon 266 

The Scelassie, Sumatra 274 

Peter Botte, Mauritius 280 

The Peak of Teneriffe 290 

The San Andres, Mexico 304 

The Silla of Caracas 312 

Bridge in the Cordilleras 318 

Chimborazo 324 

The Cordilleras, Peru " 334 

Rio Vinagre Cascade, in the Cordilleras 342 

Condors 346 



MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 



MO UN TAINS AND MO UN TAIN CLIMBING. 

BY HON. J. T. HEADLEY. 

Mountains rising from the earth, and drawing 
their gigantic outlines along the sky, form the most 
striking features of our planet. Heaved up by the 
action of internal fires, they reveal in their broken, 
twisted strata the omnipotent power that piled 
them so high into the heavens. The mountain sys- 
tem, so to speak, that characterizes the earth is not 
the result of the lawless action of blind forces ; but 
of infinite wisdom. The great Ural chain, with its 
lateral branches — those mighty masses of Central 
Asia, crowned by the Himalaya, rising nearly 
30,000 feet into the heavens — the splintered snow- 
capped pinnacles of the Alps — the vast extended 
chains of the Rocky Mountains and the Andes, lin- 
ing the Pacific coast, with their smoking tops, with 
numberless minor ridges, seem to form a net-work 
of granite bands to hold the globe together. 



2 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

Doubtless, a similar system to that which marks 
the visible surface of the earth, characterizes the 
bed of the ocean — both the development of some 
all-wise plan, the full purpose of which we may not 
know. 

Independent of the laws that created them, or the 
purpose for which they were formed, they have a 
fascination for man like the nightly heavens. 

Great landmarks to the eye, many of them furnish 
great landmarks in human history, and stand also 
as monuments of God's interviews with man. The 
rainbow bending over the ark on Mount Ararat, and 
the law given in thunder and flame on Mount 
Sinai, have consecrated these mountains forever. 
Aaron's death on Mount Hor, and Moses on Pis- 
gah, and Elijah gazing on God passing by on 
Mount Horebjhave surrounded these mountains with 
a mystery' they will retain to the end of time. The 
same is true of lesser mountains. 

To stand where such scenes have occurred, 
awakes no common emotions. Indeed one cannot 
stand on any lofty mountain summit without expe- 
riencing feelings that move the heart to its pro- 
foundest depths. It is true that the desire to make 
new scientific experiments, to correct old theories, 
or establish new ones, has often induced men to 
make difficult and dangerous ascents. Much light 
has thus been thrown on meteorology — the barome- 
ter has become a simple instrument with which to 
measure heights — while the difference of tempera- 
ture as we ascend, and the rarity of the atmosphere, 
indeed, all atmospheric changes of the upper re- 



MOUNTAINS AND MOUNTAIN CLIMBING. 6 

gions, have become pretty well known to us. Many 
adventures have been undertaken and dangers en- 
countered in the cause of science, still the mere love 
of adventure has prompted most of the perilous as- 
cents that have been made. The Alps, standing in 
the centre of Europe, with their bases easy of access, 
have been the great theatre for the exploits of 
mountain tourists, while their precipitous crevasses, 
avalanches and crags have presented difficulties great 
enough to satisfy the most daring. 

Saussure, the first to ascend Mont Blanc, in 1787, 
was lauded for his bravery in facing, in the cause of 
science, the appalling obstacles that met him ; but' it 
is doubtful if anything but the love of adventure, 
and the desire to accomplish what others had failed 
to perform, had much to do with it. He had for 
twenty years and more been pursuing his investi- 
gations in the Alps, and made thirty different as- 
cents during that time, but from each turned away 
dissatisfied, because the white, smooth, snow-sum- 
mit of Mont Blanc, mocked his endeavors. It is 
not probable that the comparatively slight differ- 
ence between its elevation and that of others which 
he had ascended, would give any materially differ- 
ent results from those already obtained ; hence it 
must have been the mere love of adventure, and 
the wish to plant his feet where a human foot had 
never trod, that prompted him to make the attempt. 
In fact, he confesses as much, for he says, " It be- 
came a mania with me. My eyes never rested upon 
this Colossus without producing a painful impres- 
sion." 



4 MOUNTAIN ADYENTUEES. 

He had hoped from repeated observations to get 
some light on the mysterious laws that govern that 
mighty electrical current, that unceasingly rolls its 
unseen flood around the earth, and yet does not 
correspond with its axis. The magnetic needle that 
reveals the existence of this everflowing current, at 
a certain latitude ceases to turn to the north pole, 
showing that it has passed out of its influence. 
But even this strong desire yielded to the stronger 
one of simple achievement. So Humboldt added 
largely to scientific knowledge by his observations 
from lofty elevations in the Cordilleras, yet when he 
stood on the brink of an impassable chasm near the 
summit of Chimborazo, with the blood oozing Irom 
his gums and lips, and strained his eye upward will- 
ing to suffer and dare more, it was not for the sake 
of science that he felt so sorely disappointed. 

The ascent of Mont Blanc, the " monarch of 
mountains," is to-day almost as much an object of 
ambition as fifty years ago. The frequent death of 
adventurers does not deter others from making the 
attempt. Even women have dared the glaciers, 
avalanches and crevasses of this mountain. Only 
last year, an English lady lost her life on its slope. 
But the most tragical event of recent date, indeed, 
of any period, was the destruction last year of an 
entire party of eleven persons, when near the sum- 
mit. Three gentlemen, two of them Americans, the 
other a Scottish clergyman, and eight guides set out 
in the latter part of August, and having safely 
reached the summit at half-past two, had com- 
menced the descent, when they were suddenly 



MOUNTAINS AND MOUNTAIN CLIMBING. 5 

wrapped in a whirlwind of snow. When last seen 
by those watching them through their glasses in 
Chamouni, they were huddling close together, as if 
to hold on to each other for mutual support, and 
then the driving snow hid them from sight, and they 
were never seen alive again. It was two days be- 
fore any party could attempt to go to their relief, 
and they, after battling for two hours and a hail 
with the storm, were compelled to give it up, and it 
was ten days before the spot where they were last 
seen could be reached. During all this time the 
cold, unfeeling mountain was constantly swept by 
glasses whenever a rift in the storm clouds would 
give a glimpse of the summit. At length some 
black spots could be detected on the white surface, 
and fifty men set out toward them. They proved 
to be five bodies of the unhappy party. One of 
these was Dr. Bean of Baltimore, who was found 
sitting up in the snow with his head fallen forward 
on his hands. For two days he had sat there nearly 
three miles in the heavens, listening to the roaring 
of the storm that shut out the world below to him. 
During these two dreadful days, he traced with his 
stiffening fingers a few lines in a diary which was 
found upon him. The first entry was made in the 
morning after they had been overtaken by the 
storm. He says, " We reached the summit at half- 
past two o'clock. Immediately after having quitted 
it, I found mjself enveloped in a whirlwind of snow, 
at 15,000 feet, English height. We have passed the 
night in a grotto dug in the snow — an uncomforta- 
ble asylum, and I have been ill all night." 



6 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUBES. 

"September 1th, morning. — Cold very intense. 
Much snow. It falls without cessation ; the guides 
are uneasy. 

" September 7th, evening. — We have been on Mont 
Blanc two days in a terrible snow storm. We are 
lost, and I have no hope of descending. Perhaps 
some one will find this book and send it to you." 

Then, after leaving a message for his wife and di- 
rections in regard to his son, he continues : " We 
have no provisions. My feet are already frozen, 
and I am already exhausted ; I have only strength 
to write these words. I die believing in Jesus 
Christ, with the sweet thought of my family, my 
friendship and all. I hope we shall meet in heaven. 
Yours always." This is all that is known of the ill- 
fated party. 

The last effort of departing life was put forth to 
give his dying testimony for Christ, and express the 
love he bore his friends and family to the last. 

When the bodies were brought back to Chamouni, 
the little Swiss hamlet became a scene of sorrow 
and mourning. A part of the lost party lay far up 
Mont Blanc, wrapped in their winding sheet of 
snow, to be disturbed no more till the sea gives up 
its dead. Whether swept by the force of the storm 
into some deep abyss, or whether in the last effort 
of despair they attempted to descend to the Grands 
Mulets, till blinded and lost they perished, one after 
another, will never be known. 

But thrilling, and often painfully interesting, as 
s6me of the accounts are, of ascents of the Alps by 
small parties, they sink into insignificance beside 



MOUNTAINS AND MOUNTAIN CLIMBING. 7 

the struggles of armies over these snow covered 
heights. The ascent of the Pragel by Suwarrow with 
24,000 men, and their passage over the mountains into 
the Grisons, has few parallels in history. He had 
forced the St. Gothard, only to find his way blocked 
by Marshals Mortier and Massena with their victo- 
rious troops. 

His only possible way of escape was over the 
Kinzig Culm, into the Muotta Thai. This des- 
perate feat he accomplished, fighting his way along 
the dizzy cliffs. But when he reached the Muotta 
valley a sight met his gaze fearful enough to appall 
the stoutest heart. Molitor and his battalions looked 
down on him from the surrounding heights ; Mor- 
tier and Massena blocked the only road out ; while 
Lecourbe hung like a storm-cloud on his rear. The 
Russian bear was apparently denned, and the fate 
of the army sealed. 

Pragel lifting its rugged peak into the heavens, 
crossed by a mere bridle path, was the only avenue 
left unguarded, as though it was a sufficient barrier 
of itself to an army of 24,000 men. To attempt to 
cross it was a desperate chance ; but this the 
iron-hearted old chieftain, scorning to surrender, 
determined on, and the order, " forward," .was 
given. The rear guard held back the enemy, while 
the head of the column slowly wound its way up- 
ward. For ten awful days he struggled along these 
heights, the thunder of cannon below answered by 
the roar of descending avalanches above, mowing 
down men and beasts of burden together. 

On the eleventh day the weary, bleeding army 



8 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

found itself in the Naefels, on the other side. But 
here, too, the enemy blocked its way out of the 
valley ; and Suwarrow took the desperate resolution 
of leading his army over the Grisons, that lifted 
their snow-covered peaks 7,600 feet into the heavens. 
Up this a narrow zigzag path went winding over 
glaciers, and along precipices till lost in the snow 
fields on the distant summit. It was a frightful 
undertaking to lead 24,000 men over this mountain 
by such a path ; but the stern order was given, and 
the thin, weary, bleeding column moved up the 
ascent. As if to insure its destruction, a snow storm 
commenced to rage on the heights, that soon 
covered them two feet deep, and blotted out all 
traces of the path. Slowly, wearily, in single file, 
the mighty host wound its way upward. Only half 
the ascent was made the first day ; and without a 
fire to cheer the solitude, the army lay down in the 
snow, and, cold and hungry, passed the night. The 
next day the head of the column reached the sum- 
mit, and lo, what a spectacle met its gaze ! Moun- 
tains enfolding mountains, with untrodden abysses 
between, filled all the field of vision. No snioke arose 
to cheer the savage solitude ; no sound came out of 
the mysterious depths but the sullen roar of the 
avalanche ; and no path was visible to guide the 
feet in the downward march. This was more peril- 
ous than the ascent, for a freezing wind had hard- 
ened the snow into a crust, that frequently bore 
the soldiers, who had to thrust their ba}'onets 
into it to keep from sliding over the precipices. 
Hundreds, exhausted and despairing, lay down to 



MOUNTAINS AND MOUNTAIN CLIMBING. 9 

die, while whole companies, slipping together, would 
strike those in front, and all go in one black mass 
into abysses from which even the cry for help could 
not be heard. Beasts of burden, too, with their 
loads, would come sliding against the line, carrying 
the poor soldiers with them over the precipices. 

The army was five days struggling over these 
heights, leaving nearly 8000 men scattered along 
the precipices and snow fields, or piled together in 
the abysses below. For months after, vultures 
hovered incessantly along the line of this terrible 
march, gorging themselves with the dead bodies. 

The passage of the Splugen by McDonald, with 
fifteen thousand men, in the winter, was a similar 
achievement, though he had no enemy but the ele- 
ments to encounter. 

The sketches in this volume embrace every variety 
of scenery, of almost every zone of the earth. The 
beautiful and entrancing succeed the grand and 
awful in rapid alternation, carrying the reader from 
one mountain top to another with an interest that 
never flags. 

The adventurous spirit of man has enabled him 
to overcome apparently insuperable obstacles, and 
reach the top of almost every high mountain on the 
globe ; yet there are some that his feet will never 
profane. Humboldt and others have cast their 
longing looks in vain on the round, smooth peak of 
Chimborazo, while that most beautiful of all the 
colossal summits of the Andes, Cotopaxi, is declared 
inaccessible. 

A perfectly smooth, pure, and spotless cone, it 



10 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

rises nearly 19,000 feet in the surpassingly clear 
atmosphere of that region — a thing of wondrous 
beauty. A huge volcano blazes from its snowy top, 
sending its tongue of flame far up into the serene 
heavens, once reaching the extraordinary height of 
nearly three thousand feet. Its roarings are terrific, 
so that Humboldt, on standing^ on the shore of the 
ocean, nearly two hundred miles distant, could dis- 
tinctly hear them. In the eruption of 1744 its tre- 
mendous explosions were heard six hundred miles. 

Nothing is more interesting than a tour among 
mountains ; and the toil and the danger are forgot- 
ten in the varied emotions they awaken. 



MONT BLANC. 

ASCENT IN 1787 BY DE SAUSSURE. 

On my way to Chaniounix, in the beginning of 
July, I met at Sallenche the courageous Jacques 
Balm at, who was coming to Geneva to inform me of 
his recent success : he had ascended to the summit 
of the mountain with two other guides. Rain was 
falling when I arrived at Chamounix ; and the bad 
weather lasted four weeks. But I was determined 
to wait uniil the end of the season rather than miss 
a favorable opportunity. 

It came at last, — that moment so much desired, 
— and I set off on the 1st of August, 1787, accom- 
panied by a servant, and by eighteen guides, who 
carried the scientific instruments, and all the bag- 
gage that I required. My son had an ardent desire 
to go with me ; but I feared that he was not as yet 
either robust enough, or sufficiently inured to such 
violent and prolonged exertion, and therefore in 
sisted on his renouncing the project. He remained 
at the Priory, where he most carefully took observ-j 



12 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

ations corresponding to those which I made on the 
summit. 

In order to be perfectly free in the choice of the 
places where we should pass the nights, we carried 
with us a tent under which I reposed the first even- 
ing on the top of the Montague de la Cote. This 
day was free from hardships and dangers ; we walked 
up either on turf or over rocks, and did it easily in 
five or six hours. But from thence to the summit 
we marched on over ice and snow. 

The second day's work was not the easiest. We 
had first to cross the glacier de la Cote in order to 
gain the foot of a little chain of rocks which are 
embosomed in the snows of Mont Blanc. This gla- 
cier is difficult and dangerous. It is cut up into 
wide, deep, and irregular crevasses, which some- 
times can only be crossed by means of bridges of 
snow, which are occasionally very thin, and sus- 
pended over deep abysses. One of my guides had 
a narrow escape. He had gone in the evening with 
two others to examine the passage ; and happily 
they had taken the precaution of tying themselves 
to each other with cords ; for the snow gave way 
under him in the midst of a large and deep crevasse ; 
and he remained suspended between his two com- 
panions. We passed close to the opening which 
had formed under him, and I trembled at the sight 
of the danger which he had run. The passage of 
this glacier is so difficult and so tortuous that it 
took me three hours to go from the top of La Cote 
to the first rocks of the isolated chain, although the 



MONT BLANC. ' 13 

distance is not more than three-quarters of a mile 
in a straight line. 

After having reached these rocks we set out from 
them again in order to ascend, in a serpentine man- 
ner, into a little valley filled with snow which 
stretches from north to south, to the very foot of tho 
highest point. These snows are divided at intervals 
by enormous and superb crevasses, the clean and 
sharp cuttings of which show the snows disposed 
into horizontal beds, each of which beds corre- 
sponds to a year. And whatever might be the 
width of these crevasses we could nowhere discover 
their depth. 

My guides wished to spend the night in the 
neighborhood of one of the rocks which we passed 
on this route ; but as the highest of *them is from 
600 to 700 fathoms below the summit, I wished to 
ascend higher. For that purpose it was necessary 
to encamp in the midst of the snows, and to this I 
had the greatest difficulty in getting my companions 
to consent. They imagined that during the night 
there reigns in these high snows a cold absolutely 
insupportable ; and they seriously feared that they 
should perish through it. I told them at last that 
as for myself I was determined to go on with those 
of them of whom I was sure ; that we should dig- 
deeply in the snow, cover the excavation with the 
tent-cloth, then shut ourselves closely up in it, and 
that thus we should not suffer at all from the cold, 
however rigorous it might be. This arrangement 
reassured them, and we went forward. At four 
o'clock in the evening we reached the second of the 



14 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

three great plateaux of snow which we had to cross ; 
and there we encamped, at 1455 fathoms above the 
Priory, and at 1995 above the sea, being 90 fathoms 
higher than the summit of the Peak of Teneriffe. 
We did not go on to the last plateau, because it is 
exposed to avalanches. The first one over which we 
had just passed, is not exempt from them. "We had 
crossed two of these, avalanches which had fallen 
since Balmat's last journey, and the ruins of which 
covered the valley in all its extent. 

My guides set themselves first to excavate the 
spot in which we had to pass the night ; but they 
quickly felt the effect of the rarity of the atmos- 
phere (the barometer being at 16.3 inches). These 
robust men, for whom seven or eight hours' march 
was absolutely nothing, had not raised more than 
five or six shovelfuls of snow when they felt the 
impossibility of going on. They were obliged to 
rest every minute. One of them, who had turned 
back to get a barrel of some water which we had 
seen in a crevasse, became ill on his way, came back 
without the water, and passed the evening in the 
greatest pain. Even I, who am so accustomed to 
the air of mountains, and always feel better in it 
than in that of the plain, was utterly exhausted by 
the exertion of just preparing my meteorological 
instruments. This affection produced in us an un- 
quenchable thirst ; and we could only procure water 
by melting snow, for the water which we had seen 
in ascending proved to be frozen when we returned 
for it ; and the little charcoal chafing dish served 
twenty thirsty persons but slowly. 



MONT BLANC. 15 

In the middle of this plateau, enclosed between 
the last peaks of Mont Blanc on the south, its high 
steps on the east, and the Dome du Goute on the 
west, one sees hardly anything but snow, of a pure 
and dazzling whiteness ; and on the highest peaks 
this forms the most singular contrast with the 
almost black sky of these high regions. You see 
there no living being, no appearance of vegetation ; 
it is the abode of cold and silence. When I pic- 
tured to myself Doctor Paccard and Jacques Balmat 
arriving here just as the sun was declining, without 
shelter, without assistance, without even the cer- 
tainty that men can live in the places which they 
aspired to reach, and notwithstanding, intrepidly 
pursuing their way, I was filled with admiration at 
their energy of mind and their courage. 

My guides, constantly haunted by fear of the 
cold, closed all the edges of the tents with such 
exactness that I suffered much from the heat and 
from the closeness of the air. Indeed I was obliged 
to go out in the night to breathe. The moon was 
shining with the greatest splendor in the midst of 
a sky black as ebony. Jupiter also appeared par- 
ticularly radiant from behind the highest point on 
the east of Mont Blanc : and the light reflected by 
all this basin of snow was so dazzling that one could 
only distinguish stars of the first and second mag- 
nitude. We were just falling asleep when we were 
aroused by the noise of an avalanche which covered 
part of the slope which we intended to climb on the 
morrow. At break of day the thermometer was 
three degrees below freezing. 



16 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

We set out late, because it was necessary to melt 
the snow for breakfast and for the journey. It was 
drank as soon as melted ; and these fellows who 
most religiously abstained from the wine which they 
had to carry, robbed me continually of the water 
which I had put in reserve. 

We began by ascending to the third and last 
plateau ; then we turned to the left in order to 
reach the highest rock on the east of the summmit. 
The declivity is very steep, about 36 degrees in 
some places ; everywhere it abounds in precipices, 
and the surface of the snow was so hard that those 
who went first could only make sure of their footing 
by chopping steps with a hatchet. We took two 
hours to ascend this slope, which is about 250 
fathoms in height. Arrived at the last ■ rock, we 
turned towards the right, to the west, in order to 
climb the last . slope, of which the perpendicular 
height is about 150 fathoms. This slope only 
inclines from 28 to 29 degrees, and presents no 
danger ; but the air there is so rare that our strength 
was quickly exhausted ; near the top I could not 
go more than fifteen or sixteen steps without tak- 
ing breath. 1 felt even from time to time such a 
failure of strength that I was forced to sit down ; 
but as soon as respiration returned my strength 
returned with it ; and then it seemed to me that I 
should be able at one effort to reach the top of the 
mountain. All my guides, in proportion to their 
strength, were in the same state. We took two 
hours from the last rock to the summit ; and it was 
eleven o'clock when we arrived there. 



MONT BLANC. 17 

My eyes were first turned towards Chamounix, 
where I knew that my wife and sister were following 
my course through the telescope, with an anxiety 
unnecessarily great, no doubt, but none the less 
cruel ; and I experienced a very sweet and consoling 
feeling when I saw floating in the air the flag which 
they had promised to hoist the moment when they 
espied me on the highest point, and when their fears 
would be at least relieved for the time. 

I could then enjoy, without regret, the grand 
spectacle which lay beneath my eyes. A light va- 
por suspended in the loAver regions of the air robbed 
me of the sight of the lower and more distant ob- 
jects, such as the plains of France and Lombardy ; 
but I did not much mind this loss. What I saw, 
and saw with the greatest clearness, was the whole 
collection, the whole group of these high peaks 
of which I had so long desired to know the organi- 
zation. I could not believe my eyes ; it seemed to 
me that it must be a dream when I beheld beneath 
my feet those majestic peaks, those veritable needles, 
Le Midi, l'Argentiere, and Le Geant, whose bases 
even I had so long found difficult and dangerous 
of access. I seized on their bearing one to another, 
their connection, their structure ; and one glance re- 
moved all those doubts which years of labor had 
not been able to clear up. 

During this time our guides set up the tent and 
placed in it the little table on which I was to make 
my experiments. But when I came to fix my in- 
struments, I found myself every instant obliged to 
interrupt my work in order to get breath. And if 



18 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

we consider that the barometer stood there only 
at 15.1 inches, and that thus the air was of hardly 
more than half its usual density, we shall understand 
that it is necessary to supplement the density by the 
frequency of inspiration. Then this frequency ac- 
celerates the motion of the blood, and the more so 
as the arteries were no longer counter-balanced on 
the outside by a pressure equal to that which they 
usually felt. So we were all feverish. 

When I remained perfectly quiet, I only felt a 
little uneasiness and a slight disposition to sickness. 
But, when I took any trouble or fixed my attention 
for a few moments together, and above all, when by 
stooping down I had contracted my chest, I was 
obliged to rest, and take breath for two or three 
minutes. My guides experienced similar sensa- 
tions ; they had no appetites ; and, in truth, our pro- 
visions, which had become frozen by the way, were 
not calculated to excite them. They cared for 
neither wine nor brandy. In fact, they had dis- 
covered that strong liquors augment these uncom- 
fortable sensations, no doubt by increasing the 
quickness of the circulation. Nothing but fresh 
water was found agreeable ; and both time and 
trouble in lighting a fire were necessary in order to 
obtain that. 

I remained on the summit until half-past three ; 
and although I did not lose a single moment, yet I 
could not in these four hours and a half make all the 
experiments which I had frequently finished in less 
than three hours by the sea-side. I took great care, 
however, with those which were most essential. 



MONT BLANC 



19 



Quitting this magnificent belvedere I came, in 
three-quarters of an hour, to the rocks which formed 
the shoulder on the east of the summit. The de- 
scent of this declivity of which the ascent had been 
so painful, was easy and agreeable ; the snow was 
neither too hard nor too soft; and, as the move- 
ments of our bodies in coming down did not com- 




The Col du G^ant. 

press the diaphragm, it did not try the breathing ; 
and so we did not suffer from the rarity of the air. 
Besides, as this descent is broad, and free from pre- 
cipices, there was nothing to alarm us or to retard 
the march. But it was not thus with the descent 
which, from the top of the shoulder, conducts to the 
plateau on which we had slept. The great rapidity 
of this slope, the unbearable brightness of the sun 



20 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

reflected by the snow, which showed to us the pre- 
cipices under our feet, and made them appear more 
terrible than they were, rendered it extremely pain- 
ful. Besides, as the hardness of the snow had made 
our march difficult in the morning, so now its soft- 
ness, produced by the heat of the sun, incommoded 
us in the evening, because under this softened sur- 
face we found it hard and slippery. 

As we had all doubted of this descent some of 
the guides had sought for another while I was oc- 
cupied in making my observations ; but their search 
having been in vain, we were constrained to return 
by the same way that we had gone up. However, 
thanks to the care of my guides, we did it without 
accident, and that in less than an hour and a quar- 
ter. We passed near the place where we had, if not 
slept, at least rested, on the preceding night ; and 
we pushed on a league further, as far as the rock, 
near which we had stopped in ascending. I deter- 
mined to sleep there, and made them fix the tent 
against the southern extremity of this rock in a 
truly singular situation. It was on the snow, on the 
edge of a declivity exceedingly rapid, which descends 
from the valley commanded by the Dome du Goute 
with its crown of seracs* and which is terminated on 

* In the Alps they give the name of "serac" to a species ol 
white, close cheese which they obtain from whey, and which they 
press into rectangular cases, in which they take the form of cubes, 
or rather of rectangular parallelopipeds. The snows, at a great 
height, frequently take this form when they freeze, after having 
been drenched by rain. They become then extremely compact, 
and in this state, if a thick bed of hardened snow gets on to a 
declivity, so that it slides in a mass, and that, in sliding, somo 



MONT BLANC. 21 

the south by the peak of Mont Blanc. At the bot- 
tom of this declivity there was a large and deep 
crevasse which separated us from the valley, and 
which engulfed everything that we let fall from any- 
where near our tent. 

"We had chosen this position to avoid the danger 
of avalanches, and in order that the guides finding 
shelter in the clefts of the rock we should not be 
crowded into the tent, as we had been on the pre- 
vious night. 

I contemplated the mass of clouds which floated 
under my feet above the valleys and mountains 
which were, less elevated than we were. These 
clouds, instead of presenting flat or smooth surfaces, 
such as one sees when looking up from below at them, 
displayed forms that were extremely odd, — towers, 
castles, giants, — and appeared to be moved by ver- 
tical winds, which came from different points of the- 
countries situated under them. Above all these 
clouds I saw the horizon bounded by a band com- 
posed of two lines, the lower one of a blackish red, 
and the upper one lighter and resembling a flame 
of a beautiful yellow color, varying, transparent, 
and shaded. 

TTe supped merrily and with good appetites, 
after which I passed an excellent night on my mat- 
tress. It was then only that I enjoyed the pleasure 
of having accomplished the design formed twenty- 
portions of the mass do not go straight, their weight forces them 
to break into fragments nearly rectangular, of which some are 
perhaps fifty feet every way, and which, on account of their ho- 
mogeneity, are as regular as if they had been cut with scissora 



22 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

seven years before, in my first journey to Chaniounix, 
in 1760 ; a project which I had so often abandoned 
and taken up again, and which had been to my 
family a continual subject of anxiety and disquiet. 
This prepossession of mind had the character of a 
sort of malady ; my eyes had never met Mont Blanc, 
which could be seen from many places in our neigh- 
borhood, without my experiencing a sort of sorrow- 
ful pang. At the moment in which I reached the 
top, my satisfaction was not complete ; it was still 
less so when I left it, for I only then saw what I had 
not been able to do. But in the silence of the night, 
after 1 had well rested from my fatigue ; when I re- 
capitulated the observations that I had made ; when, 
above all, I retraced the magnificent picture of the 
mountains which I carried graven in my head ; and 
when, lastly, I encouraged the weU-founded hope of 
finishing on the Col du Geant what I had not been 
able to do, and which really will never be done on 
Mont Blanc, — then I felt a true and unmixed satis- 
faction. 

On the 4th of August, the fourth day of our 
journey, we did not set out until six o'clock in 
the morning. Shortly after we arrived at the 
hut. We were next obliged to descend a slope of 
snow, the inclination of which was about forty-six 
degrees, and to cross a large crevasse over a bridge 
of snow so slight that it was not at first more than 
three inches thick ; and one of the guides who 
swerved a little from the middle, got one of his legs 
over the side. At an hour's march beyond the hut 
we came to crevasses which were open ; and in order 



MONT BLANC. 23 

to avoid them it was necessary to descend an inclined 
slope of fifty degrees. Coming at last to the glacier 
which we must recross, we found it so changed in 
the last four-and-twenty hours, that we could not 
discover the route which we had taken in ascending ; 
for the crevasses were widened, the bridges were 
broken, and often, finding no way we were forced 
to return on our steps ; while oftener still we were 
obliged to make use of our ladder in order to cross 
crevasses which it would have been impossible to 
pass without its assistance. Just as he had reached 
the other side, one of the guides lost his footing; 
he slid to the edge of a chink, into which he all but 
fell, and in which he lost one of the stakes of my 
tent. In this moment of fright an enormous piece of 
ice fell into a great crevasse, with a noise which shook 
the whole glacier. But at last we got safe on to 
the rock at half-past nine in the morning free from 
all further trouble or danger. We took only two 
hours and a half from thence to the priory at Cha- 
in ounix, to which I had the satisfaction of bringing 
back all my guides in perfectly good health. 

Our reception was at once joyful and affecting ; 
for all the relations and friends of the guides came 
to embrace them and congratulate them on their 
return. And my wife, my sister, and my sons, who 
had passed together a long and anxious time at 
Chamounix in the expectation of this expedition, as 
well as several of our friends who came from Geneva 
to join in the welcome, — all expressed at this joyful 
moment the satisfaction which the fears that had 
preceded it, rendered only the more lively and touch- 



24 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

ing according to the degree of interest which we had 
inspired. 

I remained the next day at Chamounix in order 
to make some comparative observations, after which 
we all returned happily to Geneva, from whence I 
could now look on Mont Blanc with a true pleasure, 
and without that feeling of longing and anxiety 
which it had before caused me. 

H. B. de Saussuke, Voyage dans les Alpes. 



11. 

MONT BLANC. 

ASCENT IN 1844 BY MM. CHARLES MARTINS, BRAVAIS, 
AND LEPILEUR. 

I come now to the scientific ascent which I made 
in 1844, with my friends Auguste Bravais, a naval 
lieutenant, and Auguste Lepileur, a medical practi- 
tioner. 

With the former I had visited Spitzbergen in 
1838 and 1839, during the two campaigns of " La 
Recherche " in the Frozen Ocean. He had wintered 
alone at Bossecop, in Lapland; but we had staid 
together on the Faulhorn, in 1841, for eighteen 
days, at a height of 8710 feet. He himself had 
met the following year with the physician, Auguste 
Peltier, and had staid with him twenty-three days. 
A comparison of the northern regions of the globe 
with high Alpine regions was the habitual subject 
of our conversations. On the Faulhorn we had 
made a number of observations, and proposed a cer- 
tain number of problems which could only be solved 
by an ascent and a sojourn at a very great height. 
Therefore we thought of Mont Blanc. 



26 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUBES. 

We left Geneva on the 26th of July, and follow- 
ing on foot a great four-wheeled wagon which 
carried all that we required, we arrived at Cha- 
mounix on the 28th. The preparations occupied us 
several days. Our design being to 'stay some time 
as high as possible on Mont Blanc, we had brought 
from Paris a tent for encamping, with its supports 
and stakes, some paletots of goats' skin, some sheep- 
skin sacks, some blankets, etc. 

Our proposed experiments required numerous 
physical and meteorological instruments ; food, for 
three days was necessary ; but each porter could 
only carry about 32 lbs. weight besides his victuals. 
"We had altogether about 956 lbs. weight to transport 
to a height of 9750 feet above the Valley of Cha- 
mounix. 

Our caravan numbered forty-three persons, of 
whom three were guides, Michel Couttet, Jean Mug- 
nier, and Theodore Balmat ; and thirty-five por- 
ters, two being young men of the valley who had 
asked to accompany us. On the 31st of July, at 
half-past seven in the morning, we set out from 
Chamounix. 

The weather was fine, only the wind blew from 
the southwest, and the barometer had fallen a 
little ; but our preparations were made. We set out 
therefore without feeling perfect confidence in the 
weather, but hoping for speedy improvement. The 
long file of porters extended along the right bank 
of the Arve, in the midst of verdant meadows. But 
when we were arrived in front of the hamlet of Les 
Pelerins, we turned to the left. 



MONT BLANC. 27 

The last house in the village was that of Jacques 
Bahnat, the first man whose steps were printed on the 
then untrodden snow on the top of Mont Blanc, and 
who perished miserably, in 1834, in the glaciers over 
the Yalley of Sixt. Leaving the orchards which 
surround the hamlet of Les Pelerins, we entered a 
forest composed of high fir-trees and old larches, 
on the brambles of which hung the long festoons of 
a grey lichen. In the preceding spring an enor- 
mous avalanche, which had descended from the 
Aiguille du Midi, had dug a large furrow in the 
forest. Trees torn up by the roots covered the 
ground which they had once shaded, — others were 
broken in the middle, their tops lying at our feet ; 
while others, only partially injured, bent over the 
valley. These effects are due as much to the pres- 
sure of the air driven out by the avalanche, — to the 
local wind which it produces — as to the snow itself. 
The caravan being dispersed into the woods, each 
one chose his own way. 

A straight path goes along the side of the pre- 
cipice over which falls the cascade des Pelerins, and 
leads to the moraine of the glacier of Bossons ; 
then you mount in the midst of the heaped-up 
blocks which compose it, and you reach the Pierre 
de l'Echelle, an enormous rock under which they 
hide the ladder generally used to cross the crevasses 
of the glacier. This stone is about 7949 feet above 
the sea, at the same elevation as the monastery of St. 
Bernard. It is there that the traveller bids fare- 
well to the earth. He quits it to pass over the 
glacier, and up to the summit of Mont Blanc he 



28 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUIiES. 

only finds isolated rocks which surge like islands in 
the midst of fields of eternal snow. 

The circuit around the glacier of Bossons was, 
as it always is, a chaos of seracs, of needles, and 
of pyramids of ice, in the midst of which is situated 
the eastern wall of the Grands Mulets. The ver- 
tical strata of which these rocks are composed 
rise to various heights, and form steps which 
enable one to climb up to all the points. The 
rock being decomposed under the influence of 
atmospheric agents, the particles collect between 
the layers. In these collections vegetate beautiful 
Alpine plants, sheltered by the rock, warmed by 
the sun which it reflects, and moistened by the 
snow which, even in summer, often whitens these 
peaks, though it melts rapidly when the sun shines 
on it for two or three days. In some weeks they go 
through all the phases of their vegetation, and I 
have gathered nineteen phanerogamic plants in three 
ascents. M. Yenance-Payot having added five species 
to this list, there exist twenty-four flowering plants 
on the Grands Mulets. To these four-and-twenty 
phanerogams, we must add twenty-six species of 
mosses, two hepaticse, and thirty lichens, which 
brings the total number of plants that grow on 
these isolated rocks, in the midst of a sea of ice, rocks 
which appear to be deprived of all vegetation, up to 
eighty-two. Who would believe it ? These plants 
serve for nourishment to a little gnawing animal, 
the campagnol of the snow, the only mammifer which 
is found high on the Alps, whilst almost all his 
brethren are inhabitants of^fche plain. 



MONT BLANC. 29 

Bravais took on himself the task of measuring 
the variations of the magnetic intensity with the 
height. For that purpose a compass is used, in 
which a needle is suspended horizontally by a thread 
of silk not twisted. This needle is made to oscillate 
during a series of intervals of time perfectly equal ; 
and from the number of these oscillations after infi- 
nite corrections and an extreme minuteness, a con- 
clusion is arrived at as to the relative intensity of 
magnetic force at the place compared with that at 
Paris. The importance of these measures will be 
understood, as they will one day disclose to us the 
now mysterious laws of those currents which circu- 
late around the terrestrial globe, that colossal mag- 
net, the two poles of which do not coincide with the 
two extremities of the ideal axis on which the earth 
describes its daily revolution. 

Meanwhile the sun was nearing the horizon ; 
already he had disappeared behind the Monts Yergy, 
and the valleys of Sallanche and of Chamounix had 
been long in the shade, whilst the neighbouring 
granite points appeared of a white heat like hot iron 
coming out of the fire. Soon the peak of Yarens and 
the rocks of the Fiz were extinguished, and the 
shadow gained the glaciers of Mont Blanc. The 
snows which had been so luminous an instant before, 
took the dull and livid color of a corpse ; and cold 
and death seemed to invade these regions with the 
darkness and to reveal all their horrors. The point 
of Goiite, the Monts Maudits, successively grew dim ; 
while the top of Mont Blanc alone remained light 
for a little time ; then the rosy tint which had en- 



30 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

livened it gave place also to a livid one, as if life 
had abandoned it in its turn. Towards the horizon, 
above the sea of clouds, the heavens appeared of a 
light green, the result of the combination of the 
yellow rays of the sun with the blue of the celestial 
vault ; and the forms of the clouds were marked out 
by a border of the most brilliant orange. In these 
high regions there is no twilight, night succeeds to 
day quite suddenly. "We retired behind a wall 
made of dry stones which were built up before a 
cavity. Our guides were grouped on the steps of 
the rock around the little fires fed with the wood of 
the juniper, brought by them from the neighbor- 
hood of the Pierre de l'Echelle ; and they sang in 
unison slow and monotonous songs which borrowed 
from the spot a melancholy charm. By little and 
little the songs ceased, and the fires went out. Then 
nothing was heard but the noise of avalanches falling 
from the surrounding heights. Soon the moon rose 
behind the Monts Maudits, and, while still herself 
invisible, showed up in strong relief the Dome du 
Goute, of which the snows seemed to give an extra- 
ordinary phosphorescent light. When she showed 
herself above the peak of the Goute, she was sur- 
rounded by a greenish halo which stood out clearly 
on a sky as black as ink. The stars also sparkled 
brightly, but the wind had not gone down : it blew 
in strong gusts, followed by moments of perfect 
calm. Everything gave warning of bad weather on 
the morrow, yet no one dreamt of returning ; we all 
preferred to try our chance to the very last, and not 



MONT BLANC. 31 

to go back until we found it quite impossible to 
continue the ascent. 

Next day, whilst we were engaged in distributing 
anew the burdens of our porters who had changed 
their loads, I perceived all at once an old man, un- 
known to us, who was coming slowly up the slope 
which leads to the Petit Plateau. Bending over 
the snow, and assisting himself sometimes with his 
hands, he ascended slowly, but with that equal and 
measured step which indicates a practised moun- 
taineer. This old man turned out to be Marie 
Couttet ; he was now eighty years of age, and in 
his youth he had served as guide to De Saussure. 
He still* possessed an agility which caused him to be 
named ' The Chamois ;' and he well deserved this 
sobriquet, for no one could have been more intrepid. 
One day he accompanied an English traveller in a 
a difficult journey. The traveller preserved that 
phlegmatic and indifferent air which characterizes 
the English gentleman. The sight of the most 
slippery passages neither drew from him a gesture 
of astonishment, nor a word which betrayed the least 
hesitation. Irritated by this imperturbable sang- 
froid, Couttet spied out a pine cembro which pro- 
jected horizontally over a precipice about a thousand 
feet in depth ; he walked boldly along this trunk, 
and when at the extremity he lay down upon it, and 
lastly, suspended himself by his feet over the pre- 
cipice. The Englishman looked on quietly, and 
when Couttet returned to him he gave him a gold 
piece on condition that he would not do so again. 
Such was, in his youth, the man who was bofore us 



32 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

on the lower slopes of the Petit Plateau. His 
mind had become weakened before his body ; he 
thought that he had found a new road by which to 
reach the top of Mont Blanc, and offered himself as 
guide to every traveller who attempted the ascent. 
Although his offer was declined he accompanied 
them as a volunteer up to a certain height in order 
to point out to them the new road which he had 
discovered. Having been warned of the monomania 
of the old man, we had carefully hidden from him 
the day of our departure, but knowing that we were 
on the Grands Mulets, he had set off the same even- 
ing, had crossed the glacier and arrived about mid- 
night at our bivouac, where he took his place by 
the fire among the guides. At dawn he set out 
first to show the way. 

The Grand Plateau is a vast circuit of snow 
and ice, the foundation of which is a plane raised 
towards the south. But we hardly caught a 
glimpse of the configuration of the various objects, 
for before we knew where we were, the clouds had 
completely enveloped us, and snow whirled vio- 
lently around our heads. There was no time to 
hesitate ; we must either go down immediately 
or put up our tent. Two porters, Auguste Si- 
mon d and Jean Cachat, offered to remain with 
the three guides and us. The others threw down 
their bundles on the snow and precipitated them- 
selves in haste towards the Petit Plateau ; they 
vanished like shadows in the mist which thick- 
ened more and more. Left alone, we began to re- 
move the snow about a foot deep for a space of 



MONT BLANC. 33 

about twelve feet by six ; then, guided by a cord 
prepared beforehand, which was knotted to corre- 
spond to the stakes of the tent, we planted in the 
snow long and strong wooden pegs, each of which 
was furnished with a hook. That done, the tent 
was raised on the cross piece and the two supports 
which were to sustain it ; and the rings of the cords 
were passed over the heads of the pegs. The tent 
set up, we next hastened to put under shelter, first, 
all our instruments, and then all our provisions. 
We were forced to make all possible haste, for sev- 
eral bottles of wine left outside could not be found ; 
at the end of an hour the snow which fell and that 
which the wind had brought up had covered them. 
Under the tent we had improvised a floor with light 
planks of fir-wood placed over the snow. Our guides 
were at one extremity, and we at the • other. The 
space was small, and we could not stand upright ; 
we were forced either to sit or lie, and the cooking 
was performed in the middle of the tent. Our first 
care was to melt some snow in a jar heated by a 
spirit-lamp, for at these heights charcoal burns 
badly. Bravais hit on the happy idea of pouring 
this water over the stakes of the tent; the water 
froze, and then, instead of being driven only into the 
yielding snow, these stakes were fixed in masses 
of compact ice. Besides this, a cord fixed to the 
iron pin which joined the horizontal cross piece of 
one of the vertical supports, and attached, like the 
shrouds of a ship, on the side whence came the 
wind, was made fast to two stakes driven into the 
snow. These precautions taken, we had only to 



34 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

wait. Every observation was impossible, saving that 
of the barometer inside the tent, and the thermo- 
meter outside ; the latter was 27° on our arrival ; 
at two o'clock it had fallen to 25°, at five o'clock 
to 22°. When night came we lighted a lantern 
which, suspended over our heads, lighted up our 
little interior. The guides huddled together, talked 
in a low voice, or slept as quietly as if in their beds. 
The wind redoubled its force ; it blew in squalls, 
interrupted by those moments of profound calm 
which had so much astonished De Saussure when he 
was on the Col du Geant in circumstances exactly 
similar. The tempest raged in the vast amphi- 
theatre of snow on the edge of which our little tent 
was placed. Like an avalanche of air, the wind 
appeared to fall on us from the top of Mont Blanc. 
Then the covering of the tent puffed out like a sail 
filled with the breeze ; the supports bent and vibrated 
like the cords of a violin, and the cross-beam bent. 
Instinctively we held up the canvas with our backs 
during these gusts, for our safety depended on the 
firmness of this protecting shelter ; if we only took 
a few steps outside we were able to form an idea of 
what would become of us if we were carried away. 
Never before had I comprehended how travellers 
full of vigor and health could perish at a few 
paces from the place in which the tempest had sur- 
prised them ; I understood it on that day. Under 
the tent the cold was supportable. The thermo- 
meter oscillated between 36° and 38°. Our goat- 
skin clothes and our sheepskin sacks protected us 
effectually, although the hair of these things be- 



MONT BLANC. 35 

came frozen to the tent's cover. During the night 
the wind abated, but unfortunately the snow con- 
tinued to fall, the temperature also became lower 
and lower, and at half-past five in the morning the 
thermometer pointed to 10°. The new snow was 
a foot and a half deep ; but the tent cover was pretty 
free, the wind having swept it off as it fell, as it 
continued to drive along the sleet and snow of the 
Grand Plateau. The barometer remained as low 
as on the previous evening. In a light moment we 
saw the peaks of Mont Blanc, and on the Monts 
Maudits and Dromadaire, each terminated by a sort 
of tuft of snow which the south-west wind had col- 
lected on them. 

To ascend to the summit was impossible, and 
even on the Grand Plateau we were condemned to 
inaction. So we settled our plans, and after having 
arranged our instruments in the tent, we filled up 
the entrance with snow ; it was now seven in the 
morning, and the thermometer showed still thir- 
teen degrees below freezing. The snow which had 
just fallen had hidden all the clefts and crevasses ; 
but we tied ourselves together and descended ra- 
pidly to the Grands Mulets. After some moments 
of rest, we then crossed the glacier of Bossons. 
The narrow path which leads to the Pierres-Pointues, 
being covered with fresh snow, was become slippery 
and difficult. Snow had also fallen still lower, as 
far as the place called the Barmes Dessous, only 
about 2,500 feet above Chamounix. Our return re- 
assured every one : for there had been bad weather 



36 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

in the valley as well as on the mountains, and the 
report had spread that we had all perished. 

On the 25th of August fine weather set in ; the 
barometer rose steadily ; and the northwest wind 
blew in the upper regions of the air. We knew that 
our tent was still standing on the Grand Plateau ; 
for we had seen it from the top of the Brevent ; but 
it apjjeared to be buried in the snow on the south- 
west side ; and the opposite one seemed to be quite 
disarranged. 

Confident that we should find our instruments 
in good condition, we set out again on the 27th, at 
half-past twelve at night. The moon enlightened 
our march ; and at half-past three we were on the 
Pierres-Pointues. The sky was beautifully clear, 
but isolated mists remained on the Col de Balme, 
and on the Mont Yergy . A fresh breeze descending, 
and the slight twinkling of the stars, were signs to 
us of good weather. Castor and Pollux shone with 
a quiet light over the peaks of Charm oz. 

On arriving at the precipitous parts, we followed 
each other very closely, and took care that the 
angles formed by our zig-zags should have an 
opening of at least fifteen degrees. We marched 
knee-deep in snow, of which the temperature was 
always about 12° at a depth of four inches. The 
rarefied state of the air and the depth of the snow, 
from which we were obliged constantly to drag up 
our legs, forced us to walk slowly ; every twenty 
steps we stopped quite out of breath, and our feet 
were painfully cold and ready to freeze. During 
our short halts we struck them with a stick, in order 



MONT BLANC. 37 

to warm them. This part of the ascent was very 
fatiguing, though a fine sun and a quiet wind 
favored our efforts ; but, when we reached the 
slope which separates the Roches-Rouges from the 
Petits Mulets, we perceived all at once the moun- 
tains situated on the south of Mont Blanc, and 
beyond the plains of Italy. Nothing then sheltered 
us any longer ; the wind from the northwest, im- 
perceptible before, took off Mugnier's hat, and, al- ' 
though warmly dressed, I suddenly felt myself as if 
without any clothes, the wind was so cold and pene- 
trating. Turning off to the right, we soon arrived 
at the Petits Mulets, which are protogine rocks, 
situated at less than 500 feet below the summit. 
We were near the end now, but we walked slowly, 
with heads lowered and heaving chests, like a com- 
pany of invalids. The effect of the rarefaction of 
the air was felt in a painful manner; and every 
minute the column stopped. Bravais tried how long 
he could go on at his greatest speed, and stopped at 
the thirty-second step, because he could not take 
one more. At last, at a quarter to two, we reached 
the summit so much desired. It is formed of a 
sort of back-bone turning from the east-northeast 
to the south-southwest; but this ridge or back- 
bone is not sharp, as De Saussure found it, but from 
15 to 18 feet wide. 

On the north side it abuts on an immense slope 
of snow of from 40 to 45 degrees, which terminates 
in the Grand Plateau. On the south side this is 
continued with a little flat surface parallel to the 
ridge, sloping about 10 degrees, and about 300 feet 



38 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

wide. This surface is prolonged towards the south, 
or else it joins another steep descent, which sud- 
denly stops at the level of the great collection of pre- 
cipitous rocks which stand over the Allee Blanche. 
After having taken breath, our first glance was at 
the immense panorama which surrounded us : I will 
not describe it after De Saussure. 

The height of Mont Blanc does not appear to 
have sensibly varied since the first measurement was 
made, in 1775, by Shuckburgh, up to the present 
moment, which is surprising when we consider that 
the summit is formed only of ice and snow of the 
thickness of more than 200 feet. It appears evident 
that Mont Blanc is a pyramid like its neighbor, 
the Aiguille du Midi. The Eochers-Eouges, the 
Petits Mulets, and the Tourette, are all striking 
points of this pyramid ; the rest is covered with a 
cap of snow, which never melts, on account of the 
height of the mountain, on the top of which the 
temperature is rarely up to freezing point, and 
almost always very much below it. 

We may ask, then, how it is that the thickness 
of this cap of snow is invariable, and that the alti- 
tude of the mountain does not change in the course 
of seasons or even years. And, in fact, the quantity 
of snow which falls, the winds which sweep it, and 
the evaporation which diminishes the thickness, as 
well as the condensation of the clouds which in- 
crease it — all these do vary from year to year ; so 
that the form of the summit is never the same. 
Let any one compare the description of De Saus- 
sure, of Clissold, of Markham Sherwill. of Henry de 



MONT BLANC. 39 

Tilly, and of Bravais, made successively in 1787, 1822, 
1827, 1834, and 1844, and lie will see that each of 
these travellers found a different form, with the ex- 
ception of the fundamental feature, a sloping ridge 
running from east to west. How could it be other- 
wise ? Snows fall on Mont Blanc, which are brought 
there by all the winds of the compass ; they have 
hardly fallen before they are swept, displaced, and 
carried away, so that the surface looks like a ploughed 
field. Even in fine weather, when the most perfect 
calm reigns in the plain, a light smoke seems to is- 
sue from the top, which is drawn off horizontally by 
a violent wind. ' Then,' say the Savoyards, ' Mont 
Blanc smokes his pipe.' And it is a sign of fine 
weather if the smoke goes towards the south. It 
comes to this, however, that all these various causes 
of ablation and of addition compensate one another ; 
and the height of the peak remains the same. 
Nature never proceeds otherwise ; nothing is ab- 
solutely stable : everything oscillates, from the 
smallest particle to the ocean. And this oscillation 
around a middle state is the condition of life ; it 
is immobility which is a sign of death ; and the 
general powers of nature, which regulate the inor- 
ganic as well as the organic world, never rest. 

The meteorological and geodesic operations were 
hardly finished when the sun approached the lines 
of the Jura, in the direction of Geneva ; it was a 
quarter past six ; the thermometer showed for the 
temperature of the air, 11° ; for that of the snow 
on the surface, zero, and 7° at the depth of 8 



40 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

inches. The contact with this snow even through 
our boots was a real suffering. Nevertheless, we 
were very anxious to make signal fires, which should 
be visible at the same time at Geneva, Lyons, and 
Dijon, where the astronomers were forewarned : 
and these signals, seen simultaneously at the three 
cities, might have enabled them to determine exact- 
ly their differences of longitude ; but the cold was 
so extreme that we saw that to remain longer would 
have been to risk our own lives and those of the 
guide. Auguste Simond was willing to remain 
alone to make these signals ; but we refused our 
permission, and we did well. Since then the elec- 
tric telegraph has enabled us to obtain, without 
stirring and without trouble, a result which would, 
perhaps, have been purchased by the life of the 
father of a family. 

Our return was resolved on, and we had begun 
to descend, when we were stopped all at once before 
the most extraordinary sight that a man could 
behold. The shadow of Mont Blanc, forming an 
immense cone, extended itself over the white moun- 
tains of Piedmont : it advanced slowly towards the 
horizon, and rose in the air above the Becca di 
Nonna ; but then the shadows of the other moun- 
tains came in succession to join it, in proportion as 
the sun sank below their peaks, and formed a 
cortege to the shadow of the ruler of the Alps. 
All, by the effect of perspective, converged towards 
it ; and these shadows of a greenish blue at their 
base, were surrounded by a strong purple tint, which 



MONT BLANC. 41 

melted into the red of the heavens. A poet might 
have said that angels with flaming wings were 
bending round a throne on which sat an invisible 
God. The shadows disappeared in the sky, yet we 
were still nailed to the spot, immovable, though not 
mute, with astonishment ; for our admiration broke 
forth in the most various exclamations. Only the 
aurora borealis of the north of Europe could pro- 
duce a spectacle comparable in magnificence to this 
unexpected phenomenon, which no one before us had 
witnessed from the summit of Mont Blanc. 

The sun set ; and we were obliged to go forward. 
We were, first, all attached to one cord, and then 
we plunged downwards toward the Grand Plateau. 
In passing near the Petits Mulets, I picked up two 
stones on the snow, which I afterwards discovered 
to be fragments of rock broken off by the thunder- 
bolts which so often fall on these mountain-tops. 
After starting from the Petits Mulets, we stopped no 
more, but descended like an avalanche in a straight 
line, without choosing our route ; each one being 
pulled on by him who preceded him, and Mugnier, 
who went first, threw himself bounding over the de- 
clivity, plunging at each spring deep into the snow, 
which thus moderated just sufficiently the impetus 
of the moving chain. Arrived at the Grand Plateau, 
we were obliged to stop a moment for breath ; then, 
with rapid steps, we made for our tent, which we 
reached at a quarter to eight. In fifty-five minutes 
we had descended from the peak, a distance of 2800 
feet. When we entered our tent, we felt as if once 



42 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

again by the domestic hearth, and there we enjoyed 
a well-earned repose. But, notwithstanding, the 
meteorological observations were continued heroic- 
ally every two hours during the night. 

Chables Mabtins, Bu Spitzberg au Sahara. 



in. 

THE FINSTERAARHORN. 

ASCENT IN 1858 BY J. TYNDALL. 

Since my arrival at the hotel, on the 30th of July, 
I had once or twice spoken about ascending the Fin- 
steraarhorn ; and on the 2d of August my host ad- 
vised me to avail myself of the promising weather. 
A guide, named Bennen, was attached to the hotel, 
a remarkable-looking man, between thirty and forty 
years old, of middle stature, but very strongly built. 
His countenance was frank and firm, while a light of 
good nature at times twinkled in his eye, Alto- 
gether the man gave me the impression of physical 
strength, combined with decision of character. The 
proprietor had spoken to me many times of the 
strength and courage of this man, winding up his 
praises of him by the assurance that if I were killed 
in Bennen' s company, there would be two lives lost ; 
for that the guide would assuredly sacrifice himself 
in the effort to save his Herr. 

He was called, and I asked him whether he 
would accompany me alone to the top of the Fin- 
steraarhorn. To this he at first objected, urging 



4.4 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

the possibility of his having to render me assist- 
ance, and the great amount of labor which this 
might entail upon him ; but this was overruled by 
my engaging to follow where he led, without asking 
him to render me any help whatever. He then 
agreed to make the trial, stipulating, however, that 
he should not have much to carry to the cave of the 
Faulberg, where we were to spend the night. To 
this I cordially agreed, and sent on blankets, pro- 
visions, wood, and hay, by two porters. 

My desire, in part, was to make a series of ob- 
servations at the summit of the mountain, while a 
similar series was made by Professor Ramsay, in the 
valley of the Rhone, near Viesch, with a view to 
ascertaining the permeability of the lower strata of 
the atmosphere to the radiant heat of the sun. 
During the forenoon of the 2nd, I occupied myself 
with my instruments, and made the proper arrange- 
ments with Ramsay. I tested a mountain thermo- 
meter which Mr. Casella had kindly lent me, and 
found the boiling point of water on the dining-room 
table of the hotel to be 199° .29 Fahrenheit. 

At about three o'clock in the afternoon, we 
quitted the hotel, and proceeded leisurely with our 
two guides up the slope of the Eggischhorn. We 
once caught a sight of the topmost pinnacle of the 
Finsteraarhorn ; beside it was the Rothhorn, and 
near this again the Oberaarhorn, with the Viesch 
glacier streaming from its shoulders. On the oppo- 
site side we could see, over an oblique buttress of 
the mountain on which wo stood, the snowy summit 
of the Weisshorn ; to the left of this was the ever 



THE FINSTERAARHORN. 45 

grim and lonely Matterhorn ; and farther to the left, 
with its numerous snow-cones, each with its at- 
tendant shadow, rose the mighty Mischabel. We 
descended, and crossed the stream which flows from 
the Morjelen See, into which a large mass* of the 
glacier had recently fallen, and which was now afloat 
as an iceberg. We passed along the margin of the 
lake, and at the junction of water and ice I bade 
Ramsay good-bye. At the commencement of our 
journey upon the ice, whenever we crossed a cre- 
vasse, I noticed Bennen watching me ; his vigilance, 
however, soon diminished, whence I gathered that 
he finally concluded that I was able to take care of 
myself. Clouds hovered in the atmosphere throug- 
out the whole time of our ascent ; one smoky -looking 
mass marred the glory of the sunset, but at some 
distance was another, which exhibited colors almost 
as rich and varied as those of the solar spectrum. 
I took the glorious banner thus unfurled as a sign of 
hope, to check the despondency which its gloomy 
neighbor was calculated to produce. 

Two hours' walking brought us near our place 
of rest ; the porters had already reached it, and were 
now returning. We deviated to the right, and having 
crossed some ice-ravines, reached the lateral moraine 
of the glacier, and picked our way between it and 
the adjacent mountain wall. We then reached a 
kind of amphitheatre, crossed it, and, climbing the 
opposite slope, came to a triple grotto, formed by 
clefts in the mountains. In one of these a pine-fire 
was soon blazing briskly, and casting its red light 
upon the surrounding objects, though but half dis- 



46 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

pelling the gloom from the deeper portions of the cell. 
I left the grotto, and climbed the rocks above it to 
look at the heavens. The sun had quitted our fir- 
mament, but still tinted the clouds with red and 
purple, while one peak of snow in particular glowed 
like fire, so vivid was its illumination. During our 
journey upwards, the Jungfrau never once showed 
her head, but, as if in ill temper, had wrapped her 
vapory veil around her. She now looked more 
good-humored, but still she did not quite remove 
her hood, though all the other summits, without a 
trace of cloud to mark their beautiful forms, pointed 
heavenward. The calmness was perfect ; no sound 
of living creature, no whisper of a breeze, no gurgle 
of water, no rustle of debris, to break the deep and 
solemn silence. Surely if beauty be an object of 
worship, those glorious mountains, with rounded 
shoulders of the purest white snow, crested and star- 
gemmed, were well calculated to excite sentiments of 
adoration. 

I returned to the grotto, where supper was pre- 
pared and waiting for me. The boiling point of 
water, at the level of the " kitchen floor," I found to 
be 196° Fahr. Nothing could be more picturesque 
than the aspect of the cell before we went to rest 
The fire was gleaming ruddily. I sat upon a stone? 
bench beside it, while Bennen was in front with the 
red light glimmering fitfully over him. My boiling 
water apparatus, which had just been used, was in 
the foreground ; and telescopes, opera-glasses, haver- 
sacks, wine-keg, bottles, and mattocks, lay con- 
fusedly around. The heavens continued to grow 



THE FINSTERAARHORN. 47 

clearer, the thin clouds, which had partially over- 
spread the sky, melting gradually away. The grotto 
was comfortable, the hay sufficient materially to mo- 
dify the hardness of the rock, and my position at 
least sheltered and warm. One possibility remained 
that might prevent me from sleeping — the snoring 
of my companion ; he assured me, however, that he 
did not snore, and we lay down side by side. The 
good fellow took care that I should not be chilled.; 
he gave me the best place, by far the best part of 
the clothes, and may have suffered himself in con- 
sequence ; but happily for him he was soon oblivious 
of this. Physiologists, I believe, have discovered 
that it is chiefly during sleep that the muscles are 
repaired ; and ere long the sound I dreaded an- 
nounced to me at once the repair of Bennen's 
muscles and the doom of my own. The hollow cave 
resounded to the deep-drawn snore. I once or twice 
stirred the sleeper, breaking thereby the continuity 
of the phenomenon ; but it instantly pieced itself 
together again, and went orr as before. I had not 
the heart to wake him, for I knew that on him 
would devolve the chief labor of the coming day. 
At half-past one he rose and prepared coffee, and 
at two 1 was engaged upon the beverage. We after- 
wards packed our provisions and instruments ; 
Bennen bore the former and I the latter, and at 
three o'clock we set out. 

We first descended a steep slope to the glacier, 
along which we walked for a time. A spur of the 
Faulberg jutted out between us and the inladen 
valley through which we must pass ; this we crossed 



48 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

in order to shorten our way to avoid crevasses. Loose 
shingle and boulders overlaid the mountain; and 
here and there walls of rock opposed our progress, 
and rendered the route far from agreeable. We 
then descended to the Grunhorn tributary, which 
joins the trunk glacier at nearly a right augle, 
being terminated by a saddle which stretches 
across from mountain to mountain, with a curvature 
as graceful and as perfect as if drawn by the instru- 
ment of a mathematician. The unclouded moon 
was shining ; and the Jungfrau was before us so 
pure and beautiful that the thought of visiting the 
' Maiden ' without further preparation occurred 
to me. I turned to Bennen, and said : ' Shall we 
try the Jungfrau ?' I think he liked the idea well 
enough, though he cautiously avoided any respon- 
sibility. 'If you desire it, I am ready,' was his 
-reply. He had never made the ascent, and nobody 
knew anything of the state of the snow this year; 
but Lauener held examined it through a telescope 
on the previous day, and pronounced it dangerous. 
In every ascent of the mountain hitherto made, 
ladders had been found indispensable ; but we 
had none. I questioned Bennen as to what he 
thought of the probabilities, and tried to extract 
some direct encouragement from him ; but he said 
that the decision rested altogether with myself, and 
it was his business to endeavor to carry out that 
decision. ' We will attempt it, then,' I said ; and 
for some time we actually walked towards the Jung- 
frau. A grey cloud drew itself across her summit, 
and clung there. I asked myself why I deviated 



THE FINSTERAARHORN. 49 

from my original intention? The Finsteraarhorn 
was higher, and therefore better suited for the con- 
templated observations. I could in no wise justify 
the change, and finally expressed my scruples. A 
moment's further conversation caused u,s to ' right 
about,' and front the saddle of the Griinhorn. 

The dawn advanced. The eastern sky became 
illuminated and warm, and high in the air across the 
ridge in front of us stretched a tongue of cloud like 
a red flame, and equally fervid in its hue. Looking 
across the trunk glacier, a valley which is terminated 
by the Lotsch saddle, was seen in a straight line with 
our route ; and I often turned to look along this 
magnificent corridor. The mightiest mountains in 
the Oberland form its sides ; still the impression 
which it makes is not that of vastness or sublimity, 
but of loveliness not to be described. The sun had 
not yet smitten the snows of the bounding moun- 
tains ; but the saddle curved out a segment of the 
heavens which formed a background of unspeakable 
beauty. Over the rim of the saddle the sky was 
deep orange passing upwards through amber, yellow, 
and vague ethereal green to the ordinary firmamental 
blue. Eight above the snow-curve purple clouds 
hung perfectly motionless, giving depth to the 
spaces between them. There was something saintly 
on the scene. Anything more exquisite I had never 
beheld. 

We marched upward over the smooth crisp snow 
to the crest of the saddle, and here I turned to take 
a last look along that grand corridor, and at that 
wonderful ' daffodil sky.' The sun's rays had already 



dO MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

smitten the snows of the Aletschhorn, the radiance 
seemed to infuse a principle of life and activity into 
the mountains and glaciers ; but still that holy light 
shone forth, and those motionless clouds floated 
beyond, reminding one of that Eastern religion whose 
essence is the repression of all action, and the sub- 
stitution for it of immortal calm. The Finsteraar- 
horn now fronted us ; but clouds turbaned the head 
of the giant, and hid it from our view. The wind, 
however, being north, inspired us with a strong hope 
that they would melt as the day advanced. I have 
hardly seen a finer ice-field than that which now lay 
before us. Considering the neve which supphes it, 
it appeared to me that the Yiescher glacier ought to 
discharge as much ice as the Aletsch ; but this is an 
error due to the extent of neve, which is here at once 
visible ; since a glance at the map of this portion of 
the Oberland shows at once the great superiority of 
the mountain treasury from which the Aletsch glacier 
draws support. Still, the ice-field before us was a 
most noble one. The surrounding mountains were 
of imposing magnitude, and loaded to their summits 
with snow. Down the sides of some of them the 
half-consolidated mass fell in a state of wild fracture 
and confusion. In some cases the riven masses were 
twisted and overturned, the ledges bent, and the 
detached blocks piled one upon another in heaps ; 
while in other cases the smooth white mass de- 
scended from crown to base without a wrinkle. The 
valley now below us was gorged by the frozen ma- 
terial thus incessantly poured into it. We crossed 
it, and reached the base of the Finsteraarhorn, as- 



THE FINSTERAARHORN. 51 

cended the mountain a little way, and at six o'clock 
passed to lighten our burdens and to refresh our- 
selves. 

The north wind had freshened ; we were in the 
shade, and the cold was very keen. Placing a bottle 
of tea and a small quantity of provisions in the 
knapsack, and a few figs and dried prunes in our 
pockets, we commenced the ascent. The Fin- 
steraarhorn sends down a number of cliffy buttresses, 
separated from each other by wide couloirs filled 
with ice and snow. We ascended one of these but- 
tresses for a time, treading cautiously among the 
spiky rocks ; afterwards we went along the snow 
at the edge of the spine, and then fairly parted com- 
pany with the rock, abandoning ourselves to the 
neve of the couloir. The latter was steep, and the 
snow so firm that steps had to be cut in it. Once I 
paused upon a little ledge, which gave me a slight 
footing, and took the inclination. The slope formed 
an angle of 45° with the horizon ; and across it, at a 
little distance below me, a gloomy fissure opened its 
jaws. The sun now cleared the summits which had 
before cut off his rays, and burst upon us with great 
power, compelling us to resort to our veils and dark 
spectacles. Two years before, Bennen had been 
nearly blinded by inflammation, brought on by the 
glare of the snow, and he now took unusual care in 
protecting his eyes. The rocks looking more prac- 
ticable, we again made towards them, and clambered 
among them till a vertical precipice, which proved 
impossible of ascent, fronted us. Bennen scanned 
the obstacle closely as we slowly approached it,, and 



52 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

finally descended to the snow, which wound at a 
steep angle round its base ; on this the footing ap- 
peared to me to be singularly insecure ; but I marched 
without hesitation or anxiety in the footsteps of my 
guide. 

We ascended the rocks once more, continued 
along them for some time, and then deviated to the 
couloir on our left. This snow-slope is much dis- 
located at its lower portion, and above its precipices 
and crevasses our route now lay. The snow was 
smooth, and sufficiently firm and steep to render the 
cutting of steps necessary. Bennen took the lead ; 
to make each step he swung his mattock once, and 
his hindermost foot rose exactly at the moment the 
mattock descended ; there was thus a kind of rhythm 
in his motion, the raising of the foot keeping time 
to the swing of the implement. In this manner we 
proceeded till we reached the base of the rocky 
pyramid which capped the mountain. 

One side of the pyramid had been sliced off, thus 
dropping down almost a sheer precipice for some 
thousands of feet to the Finsteraar glacier. A wall 
of rock, about ten or fifteen feet high, runs along the 
edge of the mountain, and this sheltered us from the 
north wind, which surged with the sound of waves 
against the tremendous barrier at the other side. 
* Our hardest work is now before us,' said my guide. 
Our way lay up the steep and splintered rocks, 
among which we sought out the spikes which were 
closely enough wedged to bear our weight. Each 
had to trust to himself ; and I fulfilled to the letter 
my engagement with Bennen to ask no help. My 



THE FINSTERAAKHOBN. 53 

boiling-water apparatus and telescope were on my 
back, much to my annoyance, as the former was 
heavy, and sometimes swung awkwardly round as I 
twisted myself among the cliffs. Bennen offered to 
take it : but he had his own share to carry, and I was 
resolved to bear mine. Sometimes the rocks alter- 
nated with spaces of ice and snow, which we were at 
intervals compelled to cross ; sometimes when the 
slope was pure ice and very steep, we were compelled 
to retreat to the highest cliffs. The wall to which 
I have referred had given way in some places, 
and through the gaps thus formed the wind rushed 
with a loud, wild, wailing sound. Through these 
spaces I could see the entire field of Agassiz's obser- 
vations ; the junction of the Lauteraar and Fins- 
teraar glaciers at the Abschwung, the medial moraine 
between them, on which stood the Hotel des Neuf- 
chatelois, and the pavilion built by M. Dollfus, in 
which Huxley and myself had found shelter two 
years before. Bennen was evidently anxious to 
reach the summit, and recommended all observa- 
tions to be postponed until after our success had 
been assured. I agreed to this, and kept close at 
his heels. Strong as he was, he sometimes paused, 
laid his head upon his mattock, and panted like a 
chased deer. He complained of fearful thirst, and 
to quench it we had only my bottle of tea ; this we 
shared loyally, my guide praising its virtues, as 
weU he might. Still the summit loomed above us ; 
still the angry swell of the north wind beating 
against the torn battlements of the mountains, made 
wild music. Upward, however, we strained; and 



54 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

at last, on gaining the crest of a rock, Bennen ex- 
claimed, in a jubilant voice, ' Die hochste Spitze /' — 
the highest point. In a moment I was at his side, 
and saw the summit within a few paces of us. A 
minute or two placed us upon the topmost pinnacle, 
with the blue dome of heaven above us, and a world 
of mountains, clouds, and glaciers beneath. 

A notion is entertained by many of the guides 
that if you go to sleep on the summit of any of the 
highest mountains you will 

'Sleep the sleep that knows no waking.' 

Bennen did not appear to entertain this superstition, 
and before starting in the morning I had stipulated 
for ten minutes' sleep on reaching the summit, as 
part compensation for the loss of the night's rest. 
My first act, after casting a glance over the glorious 
scene beneath us, was to take advantage of this 
agreement ; so I lay down and had five minutes' 
sleep, from which I rose refreshed and brisk. The 
sun at first beat down upon us with intense force ; 
and I exposed my thermometers ; but thin veils 
of vapor soon drew themselves before the sun, 
and denser mists spread over the valley of the Khone, 
thus destroying all possibility of concert between 
Bamsay and myself. I turned, therefore, to my 
boiling-water apparatus, filled it with snow, melted 
the first charge, put more in and boiled it, ascertain- 
ing the boiling point to be 187° Fahrenheit. On a 
sheltered ledge, about two or three yards south of 
the highest point, I placed a minimum thermometer, 
in the hope that it would enable us in future years 



THE FINSTERAARHORN. 55 

to record the lowest winter temperatures at the 
summit of the mountain.* 

It is difficult to convey any just impression of 
the scene from the summit of the Finsteraarhorn ; 
one might, it is true, arrange the visible mountains 
in a list, stating their heights and distances, and 
leaving the imagination to furnish them with peaks 
and pinnacles, to build the precipices, polish the 
snow, rend the glaciers, and cap the highest 
summits with appropriate clouds. But if imagina- 
tion did its best in this way, it would hardly exceed 
the reality, and would certainly omit many details 
which contribute to the grandeur of the scene itself. 
The various shapes of the mountain — some grand, 
some beautiful — bathed in yellow sunshine, or lying 
black and riven under the frown of impervious cumuli; 
the pure white peaks, cornices, bosses, and amphi- 
theatres ; the blue ice-rifts, the stratified snow pre- 
cipices, the glaciers issuing from the hollows of the 
eternal hills, and stretching like frozen serpents 
through the sinuous valleys ; the lower cloud-field — 
itself an empire of vaporous hills — shining with 
dazzling whiteness, while here and there grim sum- 
mits, brown by nature, and black by contrast, 
pierced through it like volcanic islands through a 
shining sea. Add to this the consciousness of one's 
position, which clings to one unconsciously, that 
under-current of emotion which surrounds the ques- 
tion of one's personal safety, at a height of more 



* This thermometer was found in August 1859, and the reading 
of the index was — 22° Gent. 



56 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

than 14,000 feet above the sea, and which is increased 
by the weird, strange sound of the wind surging with 
the full deep boom of the distant sea against the 
precipice behind, or rising to higher cadences as 
it forces itself through the crannies of the weather- 
worn rocks — all conspire to render the scene from 
the Finsteraarhorn worthy of the monarch of the 
Bernese Alps. 

My guide at length warned me that we must be 
moving, repeating the warning more impressively 
before I attended to it. We packed up, and as we 
stood beside each other ready to march, he asked me 
whether we should tie ourselves together, at the same 
time expressing .his belief that it was unnecessary. 
Up to this time we had been separate, and the thought 
of attaching ourselves had not occurred to me till he 
mentioned it. I thought it, however, prudent to 
accept the suggestion ; and so we united our destinies 
by a strong rope. ' Now,' said Bennen, ' have no 
fear ; no matter how you throw yourself, I will hold 
you.' Afterwards, on another perilous summit, I 
repeated this saying of Bennen's to a strong and 
active guide ; but his observation was that it was a 
hardy untruth, for that in many places Bennen 
could not have held me. Nevertheless, a daring word 
strengthens the heart, and though I felt no trace of 
that sentiment which Bennen exhorted me to banish, 
and was determined, as far as in me lay, to give him 
no opportunity of trying his strength in saving me, I 
liked the fearless utterance of the man, and sprang 
cheerily after him. Our descent was rapid, appa- 
rently reckless, amid loose spikes, boulders and 



THE FINSTEEAARHOEN. 57 

vertical prisms of rock, where a false step would as- 
suredly have been attended with broken bones ; but 
the consciousness of certainty in our movements 
never forsook us, and proved a source of keen enjoy- 
ment. The senses were all awake, the eye clear, the 
heart strong, the limbs steady, yet flexible, with 
power of recovery in store, and ready for instant 
action should the footing give way. Such is the 
discipline which a perilous ascent imposes. 

We finally quitted the crest of rocks, and got 
fairly upon the snow once more. We first went 
downwards at a long swinging trot. The sun having 
melted the crust which we were compelled to cut 
through in the morning, the leg at each plunge sank 
deeply into the snow ; but this sinking was partly in 
the direction of the slope of the mountains, and hence 
assisted our progress. Sometimes the crust was hard 
enough to enable us to glide upon it for long dis- 
tances while standing erect; but the end of these 
glissades was always a plunge and a tumble in the 
deeper snow. Once upon a steep hard slope Bennen's 
footing gave way ; he fell, and went down rapidly, 
pulling me after him. I fell also, but turning 
quickly, drove the spike of my hatchet into the ice, 
got good anchorage,' and held both fast ; — my success 
assuring me that I had improved as a mountaineer 
since my ascent of Mont Blanc. We tumbled so 
often in the soft snow, and our clothes and boots were 
so full of it, that we thought we might as well try the 
sitting posture in gliding down. We did so, and 
descended with extraordinary velocity, being checked 
at intervals by a bodily immersion in the softer and 



58 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

deeper snow. I was usually in front of Bennen, 
shooting down with the speed of an arrow, and feel- 
ing the check of the rope when the rapidity of my 
motion exceeded my guide's estimate of what was 
safe. Sometimes I was behind him, and darted at 
intervals with the swiftness of an avalanche right 
upon him, sometimes in the traverse line with him, 
with the full length of the rope between us ; and 
here I found its check unpleasant, as it tended to 
make me roll over. My feet were usually in the air, 
and it was only necessary to turn them right or left, 
like the helm of a boat, to change the direction of 
motion and avoid a difficulty, while a vigorous dig 
of leg and hatchet into the snow was sufficient to 
check the motion and bring us to rest. Swiftly, yet 
cautiously, we glided into the region of crevasses, 
where we at last rose, quite wet, and resumed our 
walking, until we reached the point where we had left 
our wine in the morning, and where I squeezed the 
water from my wet clothes, and partially dried them 
in the sun. 

We had left some things at the cave of the 
Faulberg ; and it was Bennen' s first intention to re- 
turn that way and take them home with him. Find- 
ing, however, that we could traverse the Vieschei 
glacier almost to the Eggischhorn, I made this 
our highway homewards. At the place where we 
entered it, and for an hour or two afterwards, the 
glacier was cut by fissures, for the most part covered 
with snow. We had packed up our rope ; and Bennen 
admonished me to tread in his steps. Three or four 
times he half disappeared in the concealed fissures, 



THE FINSTERAARHORN. 59 

but by clutching the snow he rescued himself and 
went on as swiftly as before. Once my leg sank, and 
the ring of icicles, some fifty leet below, told me that 
I was in the jaws of a crevasse : my guide turned 
sharply — it was the only time that I had seen con- 
cern on his countenance, — 

1 Sie haben meine Tritte nicht gefolgt? 

1 Dock I 9 was my only reply, and we went on. He 
scarcely ever tried the snow that he crossed, as from 
its form and color he could in most cases judge of 
its condition. For a long time we kept at the left- 
hand side of the glacier, avoiding the fissures, which 
were now permanently open. We came upon the 
tracks of a herd of chamois, which had clambered 
from the glacier up the sides of the Oberaarhorn, 
and afterwards crossed the glacier to the right-hand 
side, my guide being perfect master of the ground. 
His eyes went in advance of his steps ; and his 
judgment was formed before his legs moved. The 
glacier was deeply fissured ; but there was no swerv- 
ing, no retreating, no turning back to seek more 
practicable routes ; each stride told, and every 
stroke of the axe was a profitable investment of 
labor. 

We left the glacier for a time, and proceeded 
along tne mountain side, till we came near the end 
of the Trift glacier, where we let ourselves down an 
awkward face of rock along the track of a little cas- 
cade, and came upon the glacier once more. Here 
again I had occasion to admire the knowledge and 
promptness of my guide. The glacier, as is well 
known, is greatly dislocated, and has once or twice 



60 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

proved a prison to guides and travellers ; but Bennen 
led me through the confusion without a pause. We 
were sometimes in the middle of the glacier, some- 
times on the moraine, and sometimes on the side of 
the flanking mountain. Towards the end of the day 
we crossed what seemed to be the consolidated re- 
mains of a great avalanche ; on this my foot slipped ; 
there was a crevasse at hand, and a sudden effort was 
necessary to save me from falling into it. In making 
this effort, the spoke of my axe turned uppermost, 
and the palm of my hand came down upon it, thus 
inflicting a very angry wound. We were soon upon 
the green cliff, having bidden a last farewell to the 
ice. Another hour's hard walking brought us to 
our hotel. No one seeing us crossing the Alps 
w r ould have supposed that we had laid such a day's 
work behind us ; the proximity of home gave vigor 
to our strides, and our progress was much more 
speedy than it had been on starting in the morning. 
I was affectionately welcomed by Ramsay, had a 
warm bath, dined, went to bed, where I lay locked 
in sleep for eight hours, and rose next morning as 
fresh and vigorous as if I had never scaled the 
Finsteraarhorn. 

John Tyndall, Glaciers of the Alps. 



TV. 

THE PEAK OF MOBTEBATSCK 

ASCENT IN 1864 BY J. TYNDALL. 

Towards the end of last July, while staying at 
Pontresina, in Ober Engadin, I was invited by two 
friends to join in an expedition up the Pic Mor- 
teratsch. This I willingly did, for I wished to look 
at the configuration of the Alps from some com- 
manding point in the Bernina mountains, and also 
to learn something of the capabilities of the Pon- 
tresina guides. 

We took two of them with us — Jenni, who is the 
man of greatest repute among them, and Walter, 
who is the head of the bureau of guides. We pro- 
posed to ascend by the Roseg, and to return by the 
Morfceratsch glacier, thus making a circuit, instead 
of retracing our steps. 

About eight hours of pleasant, healthful exertion 
placed us on the Morteratsch, where we remained for 
an hour, and where the conviction forced on my 
mind on many another summit was renewed ; namely, 
that these mountains and valleys are not, as sup- 
posed by the renowned President of the Geographical 



62 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

Society, ridges and heaps tossed up by the earth's 
central fires, with great fissures between them, but 
that ice and water, acting through long ages, have 
been the real sculptors of the Alps. 

Jenni is a heavy man, and marches rather slowly 
up a mountain ; but he is a thoroughly competent 
mountaineer. We were particularly pleased with 
his performance in descending. He swept down the 
slope, and cleared the ' schrouds ' which cut the 
upper snows with great courage and skill. We at 
length reached the point at which it was necessary 
to quit our morning's track, and immediately after- 
wards got upon some steep rocks, which were ren- 
dered slippery here and there by the water which 
trickled over them. To our right was a broad 
couloir, which was once filled with snow, but this had 
been melted and re-frozen, so as to expose a sloping 
wall of ice. We were all tied together at this time 
in the following order : — Jenni led, I came next, then 
my friend H., our intrepid mountaineer, then his 
friend L., and last of all the guide Walter. L. had 
had but little experience of the higher Alps, and was 
placed in front of Walter, so that any false step on 
his part might be instantly checked. After descend- 
ing the rocks for a time, Jenni turned and asked me 
whether I thought it better to adhere to them, or to 
try the ice-slope to our right. I pronounced in 
favor of the rocks ; but he seemed to misunderstand 
me, and turned towards the couloir. I stopped him 
before he reached it, and said, ' Jenni, you know 
where you are going, the slope is pure ice ?' He re- 
plied, ' I know it, but the ice is quite bare for a few 



THE PEAK OF MORTERATSCH, C3 

yards only. Across this exposed portion I will cut 
steps, and then the snow which covers the ice will 
give us footing.' He cut the steps, reached the snow, 
and descended carefully along it — all following him, 
apparently in good order. After a little time he 
stopped, turned, and looked upward at the last three 
men. He said something about keeping carefully to 
the tracks, adding that a false step might detach an 
avalanche. The word was scarcely uttered when I 
heard the sound of a fall behind me, then a rush, and 
in the twinkling of an eye my two friends and their 
guide — all apparently entangled together, whirled 
past me. I suddenly planted myself -to resist their 
shock, but in an instant I was in their wake, for 
their impetus was irresistible. A moment afterwards 
Jenni was whirled away, and thus all of us found 
ourselves riding downwards with uncontrollable 
speed on the back of an avalanche which a single 
slip had originated. 

When thrown back by the jerk of the rope, I 
turned promptly on my face, and drove my baton 
through the moving snow, seeking to anchor it in 
the ice underneath. I had held it firmly thus for a 
few seconds, when I came into collision with some 
obstacle, and was rudely tossed through the air, 
Jenni at the same time being shot down upon me. 
Both of us here lost our batons. We had, in fact, 
been carried over a crevasse, had hit its lower edge, 
our great velocity causing us to be pitched beyond 
it. I was quite bewildered for a moment, but im- 
mediately righted myself, and could see those in 
front of me half buried in the snow, and jolted from 



64 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

side to side by the ruts, among which they were 







Avalanche on the peak of Morteratsch. 

passing. Suddenly I saw them tumbled over by a 
lurch of the avalanche, and immediately afterwards 



THE PEAK OP MORTERATSCH. 65 

found myself imitating their motion. This was 
caused by a second crevasse. Jenni knew of its ex- 
istence, and plunged right into it — a brave and 
manful action, but for the time unavailing. He was 
over thirteen stone in weight, and he thought that 
by jumping into the chasm a strain might be put 
upon the rope sufficient to check the motion. He 
was, however, violently jerked out of the fissure, and 
almost squeezed to death by the pressure of the 
rope. 

A long slope was before us, which led directly 
downwards to a brow where the glacier suddenly fell 
in a declivity of ice. At the base of this declivity 
the glacier was cut by a series of profound chasms ; 
and towards these we were now rapidly borne. The 
three foremost men rode upon the forehead of the 
avalanche, and were at times almost wholly immersed 
in the snow ; but the moving layer was thinner 
behind, and Jenni rose incessantly, and with despe- 
rate energy. drove his feet into the firmer substance 
underneath. His voice shouting, 'Halt, Herr Jesus, 
halt!' was the only one heard during the descent. A 
kind of condensed memory, such as that described 
by people who have narrowly escaped drowning, 
took possession of me ; and I thought and reasoned 
with preternatural clearness as I rushed along. Our 
start, however, was too sudden, and the excitement 
too great, to permit of the development of terror. 
The slope at one place became less steep, the speed 
visibly slackened, and we thought we were coming 
to rest; the avalanche, however, crossed the brow 
which terminated this gentler slope, and regained 



66 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

is motion. Here H. drew his arm round his friend, 
all hope for the time being extinguished, while I 
grasped my belt and struggled for an instant to 
detach myself. Finding this difficult, I resumed 
the pull upon the rope. My share in the work was, 
I fear, infinitesimal ; but Jenni's powerful strain made 
itself felt at last. Aided probably by a slight change 
of inclination, he brought the whole to rest within a 
short distance of the chasm, over which, had we pre- 
served our speed, a few seconds would have carried 
us. None of us suffered serious damage. H. emerged 
from the snow with his forehead bleeding ; bat the 
wound was superficial. Jenni had a bit of flesh re- 
moved from his hand by collision against a stone ; 
the pressure of the rope had left black welts on my 
arms ; and we all experienced a tingling sensation 
over the hands, like that produced by incipient frost- 
bite, which continued for several days. I found a 
p'ortion of my watch-chain hanging round my 
neck, another portion in my pocket, the watch itself 
gone. 

This happened on the 30th of July. Two days 
afterwards I went to Italy, and remained there for 
ten or twelve days. On the 16th of August I was 
again at Pontresina, and on that day made an ex- 
pedition in search of the lost watch. Both the 
guides and myself thought the sun's heat might melt 
the snow above it ; and I inferred that if its bach 
should happen to be uppermost, the slight absorbent 
power of gold for the solar rays would prevent the 
watch from sinking as a stone sinks under like cir- 
cumstances. The watch would thus be brought quite 






THE PEAK OF MORTERATSCH, 67 

to the surface, and although a small object, it might 
possibly be seen from a distance. I was accompanied 
up the Morteratsch glacier by five Mends, of whose 
conduct I cannot speak too highly. One of them in 
particular, a member of the British Legislature, 
sixty-four years of age, exhibited a courage and 
coilectedness in places of real difficulty, which was 
perfectly admirable. 

Two only of the party, both competent moun- 
taineers, accompanied me to the scene of the ac- 
cident^ and none of us ventured on the ice where it 
originated. Just before stepping on the remains of 
the avalanche, a stone some tons weight, detached by 
the sun from the snow-slope above us, came rushing 
down the line of our glissade. Its leaps became 
more and more impetuous, and on reaching the 
brow near which we had been brought to rest it 
bounded through the air, and with a single spring 
reached the lower glacier, raising a cloud of ice-dust 
in the air. Some fragments of rope found upon 
the snow assured us that we were upon the exact 
track of the avalanche, and then the search com- 
menced. It had not continued for twenty minutes 
when a cheer from one of the guides — Christian 
Michel of Grondelwald — announced the discovery of 
the watch. It had been brought to the surface in 
the manner surmised, and on examination seemed 
to be dry and uninjured. I noticed, moreover, that 
the position of the hands indicated that it had only 
run down beneath the snow. I wound it up, hardly 
hoping, however, to find it capable of responding ; 
but the little creature showed instant signs of anima- 



68 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

tion. It had remained eighteen days in the ava- 
lanche, but the application of the key at once re- 
stored it to life, and. it has gone with unvarying 
regularity ever since. 

John Tyndall, Letter to the Times, 1804- 



V. 

THE JUNGFRAU. 

ASCENT IN 1841 BY L. AGASSIZ, E. DESOR, FORBES, 
AND DU CHATELLIER. 

A giddy path follows the edge of the precipice ; you walk between life and 
death. Two threatening peaks shut in the solitary road. Traverse noislessly 
this place of terror ; fear to awaken the sleeping avalanche. 

The bridge which crosses the frightful abyss, no man would have dared to 
build. Below, without power to shake it, growls and foams the torrent. 

A sombre arch seems to conduct towards the empire of the dead. But be- 
yond appears the laughing country in which the spring marries the autumn. 
Ah ! if I could but escape the pains and troubles of life by taking refuge in 
this happy valley. 

Four streams, of which the sources are all hidden, precipitate themselves 
into the plain. They flow towards the four quarters of the world, the west 
and north, the south and the east. And these boisterous waters seem 
scarcely to have left their mother before they have fled far off and disappeared 
in the vast ocean. 

Above the multitudes of men, the high peaks tower into the azure sky. 
There float the cloudy daughters of heaven surrounded by a halo. No terres- 
trial witness sees their lonely rounds. 

On a bright, imperishable throne, sits the queen of mountains, her forehead 
encircled with diamonds, a cold crown which sparkles beneath the brilliant 
rays of the sun. Schxllek. 

Before setting out, I will just mention an inci- 
dent respecting one of our guides, which will serve 
to show the character of these mountaineers, and 
will explain at the same time the unlimited confi- 
dence that we had in them. Hans Wahren, the 
friend of Jacob Leuthold, and one of the most in- 



70 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

telligent of all the guides of the hotel of the Grimsel, 
was in oar service for more than a month. He 
was, in some sort, Jacob's lieutenant, and rejoiced 
in the idea of conducting us to the Jungfrau, be- 
cause he and Jacob were the only persons who were 
in the secret of this expedition. But it hajDpened 
that the evening before tfcd day fixed, in going down 
with us to the hospice, he was taken with a violent 
inflammation in the knee, which the doctor consid- 
ered serious. In spite of the pain which he felt, 
however, the poor man could not make up his mind 
to let us start without him. During the two days 
of delay which occurred, his knee was sensibly re- 
lieved, so that on the eve of our departure, he came 
limping to assure us that he would be able to go 
with us, making no doubt that he would be cured 
by the next day. M. Agassiz, as we think properly, 
refused his consent, setting before him all the 
dangers to which he would be exposed. The un- 
fortunate Wahren had nothing to object to these 
reasons ; but the bitterest chagrin was painted on 
his countenance ; and seeing that he could not shake 
us, he retired into a corner of the apartment and 
wept, whilst his comrades were making preparations 
for departure. The next day, on entering the ser- 
vants' room, I was much astonished at meeting there 
our man at breakfast, with the other guides. As 
I expressed my surprise, he asked whether it was 
not then permitted to him to take leave of us. I 
thanked him for his attention, and again recom- 
mended him to take care of his knee ; Agassiz did 
the same, and we set out. We had hardly gone a 



THE JUNGFKAU. 71 

quarter of a league, when all at once we saw him, 
against a rock, in company with the other guides. 
All of us cried out to him at once, asking whether 
he had really lost his head altogether. We tried 
once more to turn him from what we judged a fatal 
project ; but in answer he only declared that he had 
well reflected on the danger which he ran, and that 
he would rather die than not be one of the party. 
So we insisted no further, but confined ourselves 
then to recommending prudence, making many re- 
flections amoug ourselves on what must have passed 
in the mind of this man, usually so calm and sub- 
missive, before he took such a resolution. 

On the 27th of August, at four o'clock in the 
morning, we started from the Grimsel, itself a 
height of 6000 feet, and directed our steps towards 
the upper glacier of the Aar, which is separated 
from the lower glacier by the mass of the Zinken- 
stock. We were at the little hillock which rises on 
the bank of the river, when the first rays of the sun 
touched the tops of the highest mountains, whilst 
their bases were still bathed in the twilight white- 
ness which follows the setting, and precedes the 
rising of the sun. Among all these summits there 
was one quite on the horizon, which was peculiarly 
lighted up ; it appeared all on fire. ' What is that 
peak ?' I asked of the guides. And they — whether 
they thought so, or whether they only used this 
stratagem in order to increase our ardor, I do 
not know — immediately answered, ' That is the 
Jungfrau !' The whole company was, as it were, 



72 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

electrified. We felt our courage increase, and from 
that moment I no longer doubted of success. 

In two hours we reached the extreme point of 
the glacier of Oberaar; and we were astonished to 
see that this glacier, which in the preceding year- 
had remained stationary, had this year participated 
in the progressive movement peculiar to all these 
glaciers of the Bernese Oberland. It had consider- 
ably pushed its moraines forward, particularly its 
terminal moraine, and its lateral left one ; the latter 
in its encroachments on the side of the valley had 
completely raised the turf, which was cut up just as 
if it had been furrowed by a ploughshare. 

The ascent furnished us with an opportunity of 
making many interesting observations on the rela- 
tion of smooth and whitened rocks to the surface 
of the glacier. From the top, we descended on to 
the plateau of snow which feeds the glacier of Viesch. 
This is a vast circus of more than half a league in 
diameter, bounded on the north by the immense 
mass of the Finsteraarhorn, and crowned by ten 
great peaks, which all bear among the inhabitants 
of Yalais the name of Viescherhorner, and of which 
the lowest are between 9000 and 10,000 feet high. 
It was in the midst of this plain that we established 
ourselves to get our dinner, — a dinner which, frugal 
though it was, we found delicious, thanks to the 
appetites which Ave brought to it. 

Afterwards we descended the fields of ice which 
extend on the south towards the Valais. The snow 
was perfectly homogeneous, without any trace of 
fallen rocks, or of foreign bodies on its surface. Tho 



THE JUNGFEAU. 73 

crevasses had almost entirely disappeared, or, if there 
were still any to be seen, it was on the sides of the 
valley. So we were walking in entire security, as 
we thought, when we perceived, at a short distance 
from us, several little openings. Curious to know 
the cause, we directed our steps in that direction ; 
and what was our astonishment when in looking 
down into one of these chinks we saw that it hid an 
immense precipice. And in this precipice there 
was an azure light which surpassed in beauty, trans- 
parency, and softness, all that we had yet seen on 
the glaciers. Ah ! if I only possessed the talent of 
describing in language worthy of it all the poetry 
that there was in this combination of snow and of 
light. Never had I seen any spectacle more at- 
tractive ; our eyes were so fascinated by it that 
we did not at first perceive that the crust of snow 
which covered this enchanting cavern was only in 
this place some inches in thickness ; however, I do 
not think that we ran a very great risk, for the snow 
was closely packed together, and the sun had not 
yet melted it. After contemplating the entrancing 
effect of this singular phenomenon for some time, 
we wished to know the cause of it, as well as its 
nature. It was an immense crevasse of nearly 
100 feet wide, and, as we calculated, of about 330 
feet deep. In the place in which we examined it, 
there was no other opening than the little chink of 
which I have spoken ; but further on, it joined a 
large crevasse which was open on the side of the 
right bank, and there the light entered, while the 
intermediate roof tempering the reflection of the di- 



74 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

visions of snow, gave them a sweetness and a charm 
quite indescribable. The divisions of these caves, 
like immense walls of crystal, were composed of 
horizontal and parallel strata from three or four 
inches to three feet in thickness of snow, very much 
hardened and pressed together, but still crystalline ; 
for it had not yet taken that granulated form which 
one meets lower down. Between these strata of 
snow there was usually a little band of ice, but of an 
ice that was bulbous and not very compact, although 
of a deeper color than the rest of the divisions. 
Our guides were all agreed in affirming that each of 
these layers represents the snow of one year ; and 
this explanation appeared to us the most natural. 
As to the thin bands of ice which separate the layers 
of snow, they are doubtless due to the action of the 
sun, which has shone every summer on the layer of 
the preceding winter. 

In pursuing our route we found a number of 
other crevasses similar to the one which I have just 
described ; we soon arrived at a certainty that the 
soil on which we were travelling was entirely mined ; 
for, in looking into an open crevasse, we often saw 
it prolonged into the interior of the mass, far beyond 
its superficial limits ; but others were open to the 
surface the whole way. 

After having travelled for about an hour over 
fields of snow, we passed over the neve, in which we 
met with a prodigious quantity of red snow. As 
the little organisms which compose this red snow are 
usually accumulated in the greatest numbers just 
beneath the surface, we, of course, rendered them 



THE JUNGFEAU. 75 

more apparent by disturbing the ground ; so at 
every step we left, as it were, a trace of blood, which 
could be seen at a great distance. 

It was on the right bank of the glacier, at about 
three hours' march from the village of Yiesch, that 
we anticipated the most difficult work. It was ne- 
cessary to descend over a barrier of rock almost 
vertical and very steep, at the foot of which fell a 
beautiful cascade. The road was a species of cou- 
loir, which presented here and' there some slight 
projections on which we could place our feet. When 
these points of support were insufficient, we endeav- 
ored to cling on the best way we could against the 
sides of the couloir, helping ourselves with a stick, 
or making use of the assistance of one of the guides ; 
but this latter was a method to which our amour- 
propre resigned itself as a last resource. When we 
were out again on the glacier, and -could look at the 
descent which we had just made, it seemed impos- 
*sible to us that this could be the road which the 
shepherds ordinarily take. But Jacob assured us 
that there was no other. We understood still less 
how they transported their flocks there ; and Jacob 
did not know this himself ; yet he maintained that 
it is this way that they would come up. We in- 
formed ourselves about it afterwards at Viesch, where 
they told us that this is really the only way to the 
upper pasturage ; that they hoist the sheep by means 
of cords, which they attach to their horns, and in 
default of horns, to the'r necks. As for the shep- 
herds, they do not often pass over this road ; for, 
when once the sheep are up, they leave them to 



76 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

themselves until' the autumn ; and it is only from 
time to time that a shepherd goes up to give them 
the salt which they require. 

We had many opportunities of proving, along 
the glacier of Viesch, the manner in which it wears 
away and forms its banks. The predominant rock 
is here still the granite, sometimes composed of fine 
grains, sometimes of coarse crystals ; which, how- 
ever, does not prevent it from being in many parts 
as smooth as polished marble. We remarked in it 
also, in a very distinct manner, those parallel striae 
which constitute one of the distinctive characteristics 
of the glaze or polish produced by the action of 
glaciers. 

It was four o'clock in the evening when we made 
the last halt, still on the right bank of the glacier of 
Viesch, in a spot from whence we could see, for the 
first time, the bottom of the Valais. We observed 
from hence several ancient moraines, which extend a 
long way on the left bank of the glacier, to a height 
of several inches above its own level. A quantity of 
loose blocks are scattered to higher levels still, and 
indeed loose blocks are found up to the summit of 
the mountain. 

We had still two leagues to go. No one was 
very tired, although we had been on foot for twelve 
hours ; but a cry of surprise escaped us when, at the 
turn of the mountain, Jacob showed us the way 
up which we had to go. It was a very steep slope, 
about 1,000 feet high, by the edge of which went a 
little path, and apparently by no means a pleasant 
one. The look of despair on some faces, and tiie ex- 



THE JUNGFKAU. 77 

pression of resignation on others, might have fur- 
nished subjects for a capital picture, if there had 
been an artist among us who was not too much 
fatigued to draw. However, we arrived at six 
o'clock in the evening at the chalets of Morjelen, 
where we were to pass the night and where the 
shepherds received us very cordially. 

Next day we ascended straight on to the glacier 
of Aletsch. On the right where it bends we en- 
joyed a magnificent view in two directions, The 
Dent Blanche, the Matterhorn, Monte Eosa, and the 
Strahlhorn, formed a picture on the southwest, 
whilst before us, on the north, rose the grand peaks 
of the Jungfrau, the Eiger, and the Monch, which 
looked so near that they seemed to invite us to 
persevere. 

The glacier of Aletsch is, in general, very smooth ; 
it is of all the glaciers the one which has the slight- 
est inclination. We walked nearly two hours on the 
compact ice, after which we passed into the region 
of crevasses, which is the division between the ice 
and the neve. This region is almost a league wide. 
The neve,* which succeeds to it, is the finest in 
Switzerland. It begins about the height of the 
Faulberg. It may be known from a distance by a 
certain air of age about it which forms a striking 
contrast with the dazzling whiteness of the upper 
snows. It is depressed in the middle and raised at 
the edges, which is, in fact, an essential character- 
istic of all neves, Crevasses were very rare this 
year ; and we only came across a few very narrow 
ones. On the fields of snow, which began with the 



78 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

ascent, we made, at half-past nine, the first halt 
in a place which we called the Repose, because the 
passage that we had just made, and the immense 
slopes which rise in front of it, naturally invite one 
to take rest there-. 

We found on the first plateau of snow some 
crevasses which occur frequently just where the 
slopes begin to be steep. These are, like those of 
the neve of Yiesch, crevasses of embankment. We 
saw some here again which were nearly 100 feet 
wide ; but as they are not very long as well as wide, 
we were generally able to go round them ; but 
sometimes they were hidden; and, therefore, our 
guide had to use the utmost circumspection to pre- 
serve us from danger ; so we got on less quickly 
than we desired ; and, in spite of all the precau- 
tions, several of us got slips, but without sustaining 
any real injury. 

We thus scaled several terraces, and directing 
our steps always to the west, we arrived at a vast 
opening, commanded on all sides by great peaks, of 
which the highest was the Jungfrau. Jacob made 
us halt here a second time, doubtless that he might 
reconnoitre. As for us, we only saw on all sides 
difficulties insurmountable. On the right, vertical 
slopes ; on the left, masses of ice which threatened 
to crush us in their fall ; and before us the rimaye, 
or great crevasse, which appeared impassable, it was 
so gaping. I asked Jacob in what direction we were 
going to ascend, but he refused to answer me, con- 
tented himself with saying that we had only to 
follow him in all confidence, and that he already 



THE JUNGFKAU. 79 

eaw the road which we must take. Afterwards I 
saw that he was right to elude my question ; for it 
is very likely that we should never have arrived, if 
every one had been allowed to give his opinion on 
the difficult passages. 

It was then nearly mid-day ; the heat was ex- 
cessive ; and, in order to refresh themselves, our 
guides applied handfuls of snow on the nape of the 
neck. Several of us did the same, in spite of the 
remonstrances of. the others, who, alarmed at what 
appeared imprudence, forgot that in these elevated 
regions, the material organization, as well as the 
moral nature,. is much more independent of per- 
nicious influences than in the plain. The reflection 
of the light from the snow was most intense and 
almost insupportable. In such circumstances one 
can hardly do without a veil ; but there is, on the 
other side, the great inconvenience of rendering 
your steps less sure, and of considerably increasing 
the heat of the £ace, by hindering the fresh air from 
getting at it. So Agassiz preferred to expose him- 
self to having his face scorched rather than use one. 

"We directed our course straight for the great 
rimaye, which we reached after having climbed up 
a fourth terrace. It is a gulf of an unknown depth, 
which opens on to the slope of the last terrace but 
one, and penetrates a little obliquely into the mass 
of snow : in another place its width is not less than 
10 feet, so that there is no way of getting over it 
but by a ladder. Before passing over, we went to 
examine the ruins of a fallen mass which was lying 
on our left, and which appeared to have been 



SO MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

detached a little while before; for the impression 
which it had left in rolling over the surface of the 
snow was still quite fresh. We saw with interest 
that the ruins of this avalanche, detached from a 
peak, of which the height is nearly a thousand feet, 
were composed of alternate layers of compact blue 
ice and of white ice, which had the appearance of 
congealed snow. These different layers were an 
inch or two in thickness, and alternated three or 
four times in a block of a cubic yard. 

We had now to pass over the great crevasse. 
Our ladder was nearly 25 feet long, and was, conse- 
quently, more than sufficiently large. But imme- 
diately above the gulf, the slope of the ground was 
frightfully rapid, for a space of more than thirty 
feet. We reckoned the inclination at about 50 de- 
grees. And further, the snow which, up to that 
point, had been very soft and almost powdery, as- 
sumed all at once an excessive hardness, so that the 
guides were obliged to cut steps. Our courage was 
ready to sink at the first trial ; but Jacob and Jaun 
mounted first. When they were arrived at about 
half the distance across, they flung us the rope 
which they held by one end, and which, fixed by 
the other to the ladder, served us as a sort of 
banister. We thus all reached the summit of the 
terrace, though not without difficulty. The guides 
themselves, perhaps, exaggerated the dangers of this 
first passage a little ; for they lavished their direc- 
tions and their support with a liberality which we 
might have found superfluous, if not injurious, some 
hours later. 



THE JUNGFRAU. 81 

It was two o'clock when we arrived at the Col 
clu Eoththal. This defile resembles very much that 
of the Oberaar ; and, like this latter, it is commanded 
by two very high peaks ; the Jungfrau on the north, 
and the extremity of the Kranzberg on the south. 
It is several yards wide here. The hanging mists 
collected in bottom of the Eoththal only allowed 
us some fugitive glances into this wild and rugged 
valley, which the country people consider to be the 
abode of a band of turbulent spirits, known under 
the name of the Barons of Rotlithal. 

We calculated the height of the last peak at 
nearly 1000 feet above our level ; and we hoped to 
ascend it in less than an hour, in spite of its ex- 
cessive steepness. However, we soon saw that the 
ascent was more difficult than we had supposed. 
In place of snow, we only found on all sides com- 
pact ice, in which the guides were obliged to cut 
steps, lest we should slide down ; and we had to 
advance very slowly. So we had ascended for an 
hour without the peak seeming to be sensibly 
nearer, when the thickest fog enveloped us ; and we 
could hardly discern from behind those who were 
at the head of the column. 

This was just the steepest point of the ascent. 
Mr. Forbes, having measured the inclination, found 
it to be 45°. The ice was so hard and impenetrable 
that for a little while we could not make more than 
fifteen steps in a quarter of an hour. The cold also 
was so intense, that there was reason to fear that we 
should get our feet frozen, in spite of all our care to 
give them as much motion as possible. Seeing then 



82 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

that our position began to be really critical, Agassiz 
asked Jacob if lie hoped that we should ever arrive 
at the top. The latter replied to him with his 
habitually calm manner, that he had never doubted 
it, and at the cry of ' Vorwarts /' (Forward) we again 
set ourselves to mount with the same ardor as at 
the beginning. One, however, of the guides had 
quitted us, not having been able longer to bear 
the sight of the precipices to the right of us ; and 
truly the road which we had to follow was enough 
to frighten any one who was not sure of his head 
and his legs. This last ridge, which is in form 
like a vertical section of an inclined cone, com- 
mands on the east those fields of snow which 
we had just crossed, and on the west the neve 
of the Roththal. The inclination is, however, 
rather more on the west than on the east, for 
the fragments of ice broken off by the strokes of 
the hatchet always rolled into the latter valley. As 
we had no time to lose, we went up quite straight 
without making any zigzag. It was also the most 
rational and the surest method ; for, by the laws of 
mechanics, one has much more strength when one 
bears on the toes and turns the face forwards, than 
when one goes up obliquely ; so that if unfortunately 
one of us had slipped, it would not have been im- 
possible for the others to hold him up, whilst in the 
other case it would have been at least very difficult. 
And further, Jacob made us walk on the edge of the 
ridge; because the ice was generally rather less hard 
there, which accelerated our ascent a little. The 
result was that we had the precipice constantly 



THE JUNGFEAU. 83 

under our eyes, only being separated from it by a 
sloping roof of snow. Several times, in putting my 
stick out a little further than usual, I felt it go 
through this snow, which was in some places only 
about a foot and a half thick ; and we could then, 
if the fog had happened to clear away for a few 
moments, look through these holes made by the 
stick on to the vast table land beneath our feet. 
Far from dissuading us from this exercise, the guides 
rather encouraged us in it, at least all who were not 
liable to giddiness ; and I believe that truly it was a 
good way of giving us assurance. 

But the fog still hung round the summit, and 
we only had a clear view of the east over the Eiger, 
the Monch, and the peaks which enclose the glaciers 
of the Oberaar and of the Unteraar. Already we had 
begun to despair of enjoying the spectacle which our 
imagination tried to paint, when all at once the 
veil of clouds withdrew, and, as if touched by our 
perseverance, the Jungfrau showed herself to our 
astonished eyes in all the beauty of her mighty 
and majestic form. I leave you to fancy what de- 
light we felt at the sight of this unexpected change ! 
It was a sort of picture of life, if I mistake not. 
Audaces fortuna juvat. 

After having ascended still for some time in the 
same direction, we turned suddenly to the left, in 
order to reach a place where the rock was bare, 
crossing thus the inclined surface of the demi-cone, 
of which the breadth is here still about 25 feet. 
During this little crossing, the summit remained 
hidden from us ; and when we arrived at the rocky 



84 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

place we saw, as by magic, at some steps from us, 
the culminating point, which, until then, had seemed 
to flee from us in proportion as we rose higher. Of 
thirteen of us who left the chalets de Morjelen, eight 
of us were about to succeed in our attempt; MM. 
Agassiz, Forbes, Du Chatelier, and myself, accom- 
panied by four guides, Jacob Leuthold, Michel Baun- 
holzer, Johannes Ablanalp, and Hans Jaun, from 
Meyringen. Switzerland, England, France, and 
Germany, were thus represented in this ascent. 

Here, for the first time, we beheld the Swiss 
plain. We were on the western border of the sec- 
tion of the cone, having at our feet the mass which 
separates the valleys of Lauterbrunnen from those of 
Grindewald. From this moment the scene appeared 
to us entirely changed, and the mass which had 
seemed to shrink as we rose, looked larger now by 
all the height we had gained. Quite close to the 
rocky place the mountain forms a little elbow at 
ten feet below the highest point. This is at the 
same time the limit of the ice, which, higher up, 
gives place anew to the snow, or rather to a coarse- 
grained neve. We saw, with a sort of fear, that the 
space which separated us from the highest point 
was a sharp ridge of from, perhaps, two-thirds of a 
foot to rather over a foot in width only, for the 
distance of about twenty feet ; while the sides, both 
right and left, sloped at an inclination of 60 or 
70 degrees. ' There is no way of reaching it/ said 
Agassiz; and this was the opinion of nearly all. 
Jacob, on the contrary, asserted that there was no 
difficulty, and that we should all go up. Putting 



THE JUNGFRAU. 85 

down the things which he carried, he set forward, 
passing his stick over the ridge, so as to have the 
latter under his right arm, and thus walked along 
the eastern slope, crushing the snow as much as pos- 
sible under his feet, so as to make our road easier. 
He thus, in an instant, and without difficulty, reached 
the peak. So much courage and sang-froid re-ani- 
mated our courage, and when he returned for us no 
one ventured to refuse. 

The summit is a very small space, about two 
feet long by a foot and a half wide. It is in the 
form of a triangle, with the base turned towards 
the Swiss plain. As there was not room for more 
than one, each went in turn. Agassiz ascended first, 
supported on the arm of Jacob who preceded him. 
He remained about five minutes, and when he re- 
joined us I saw that he was very much agitated ; 
and, in fact, he confessed to me that he had never 
felt such emotion. It was my turn next ; I expe- 
rienced no difficulty in crossing, but when I was at 
the summit I could, no more than Agassiz, repress 
the most lively emotion in presence of such a spec- 
tacle of surpassing grandeur. I also only remained 
a few minutes, but long enough to remove all fear 
that the panorama of the Jungfrau would ever be 
effaced from my memory. 

It is not the vast field which the eyes embrace 
which is the charm of these mountains. Already 
in the preceding year, on the Col de la Strahleck, 
we had had experience which taught us that distant 
views are generally rather indistinct. Here, on the 
summit of the Jungfrau, the forms of the far-off 



86 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

mountains appeared still less defined. But had they 
been as clear as is the line of the Jura when seen 
from an eminence in the plain, I believe that our 
eyes would not have rested long on them, so much 
were they fascinated by the spectacle which our im- 
mediate neighborhood offered. Before us was ex- 
tended the Swiss plain, and at our feet were stretched 
the anterior chains which, by their apparent uni- 
formity, appeared to set off the great peaks which 
rose almost to our level. At the same time, the 
valleys of the Oberland, which at the moment of our 
arrival were enveloped in light mists, discovered 
themselves in several places, and permitted us to 
see, through the breaks in them, the world below. 
We distinguished on the right, the Valley of Grindel- 
wald; on the left, in the depth, an immense cre- 
vasse, and at the bottom of the latter a light line 
which seemed to follow its windings. This was the 
Valley of Lauterbrunnen, with the Lutschine river 
running through it. But, above all, the Eiger and 
the Monch attracted our attention. We had some 
difficulty in realizing that these were the same 
peaks which seem nearer to heaven than to the 
earth when one sees them from the plain. Here we 
contemplated them from above, and their great 
proximity permitted us, in some sort, to observe 
them in detail, for we were only separated from 
them by the extent of the Neve d'Aletsch. Op- 
posite, on the western side, rose another peak less 
colossal, but more graceful, the sides of which 
being entirely clothed with snow, it has obtained 
the name of Silberhorn (Silver Peak). However, 



THE JUNGFEAU, 87 

in the same direction we discovered several other 
peaks in like manner crowned with snow, of which 
the nearest and most pointed appeared to ns to be 
the Gletscherhorn. These summits formed the im- 
mediate cortege of the Jungfrau, which rises like a 
queen in the midst of themr . Beyond the Eiger and 
the Monch, in the eastern direction the great masses 
which surround the glaciers of Finsteraar and of 
Lauteraar, form another group still more extensive 
and severe-looking than that in the midst of which 
we were placed. These were the Viescherhorner, 
the Oberaarhorn, the Schreckhorner, the Berglistock, 
the Wetterhorner, and, in the centre, the Finsteraar- 
horn, the highest mountain of Switzerland, which, 
alone amongst them all, rose above our level, and 
whose steep and rocky sides seemed to defy our 
ambition. 

On the south the view was contracted by the 
clouds which had accumulated for several hours over 
the chain of Monte Rosa. But this inconvenience 
was more than compensated by a very extraordinary 
phenomenon which was presented to our eyes and 
which interested us exceedingly. Thick fogs ap- 
peared, as it were, massed together on our left, in a 
southwesterly direction. They rose from the base 
of the Roththal, and began to extend to the north, 
over the mass which separates this valley from that 
of Lauterbrunnen. We were already beginning to 
fear that they would a second time come over us, 
when their progress was suddenly stopped, no doubt 
from the effect of some current of the plain, which 
prevented them from coming further in this direc- 



88 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

tion. Thanks to this circumstance, we found our- 
selves, all at once, before a vertical wall of fog, the 
height of which must have been over 12,000 feet at 
least, for it penetrated to the bottom of the Yalley 
of Lauterbrunnen and rose much above our heads. 
As the temperature was down to freezing point, the 
little drops of mist were transformed into icy crystals, 
and reflected in the sun all the colors of the rain- 
bow ; so that one might have said that a golden 
mist sparkled around us. 

It was more than four o'clock when we again put 
ourselves en route. And now came the difficult 
part ; for if the ascent had been perilous what must 
the descent be ! I am quite sure of this, — that 
when we measured with our eyes the immense de- 
clivity that we had to get down, more than one of 
us would have been very glad to have been already 
at the bottom. It was too steep to think of walk- 
ing in the usual way, so we had to descend back- 
wards. I confess that the first steps caused me a 
little uneasiness ; for, as we had not — that is, Agassiz 
and I — guides before us to direct our steps, we were 
obliged constantly to look between our legs to find 
the cuttings, which made the way appear more 
giddy than it might otherwise have done. But 
some moments sufficed to get used to this ; and such 
was the regularity of the cuttings, that, after having 
taken some hundred of steps, we could, if necessary, 
have trusted to our feet, and have dispensed with 
looking at them at all. Yet the steepness of 
the descent was almost always the same, oscillating 
between 40 and 45 degrees, that is to say, much the 



THE JTJNGFRAU. 89 

same as that of the roofs of our Gothic cathedrals. 
There was, indeed, one place in which it must have 
been about 47 degrees. But in spite of this excessive 
steepness, we did not take more than an hour in 
reaching the Col de Roththal, for it was about five 
when we arrived there. 

There remained still six leagues to make before 
we could regain our chalets; so that, as we had 
foreseen, we should have to cross that part of the 
glacier which was most full of crevasses by night. 
However, no one seemed at all uneasy about it, and 
the moon was not late in rising, while the clouds 
had almost entirely disappeared from the horizon. 
We marched at a quickened pace for three hours 
over the neve which succeeded the plateau of snow ; 
and that part was accomplished without difficulty, 
for the neve here has a smooth surface, so that it 
is as easy to walk on it as on a highroad. And it 
was scarcely dark when we saw the moon right in 
front of us. 

We were then at the height of the two passes 
which I have mentioned, that of Lotsch on the 
west, and that which conducts into the neve of 
Yiesch on the east. The moon was just in the 
axis of the glacier, so that all this great sea of ice 
was uniformly illuminated, and reflected a light 
much softer than that of the sun, from which we 
had suffered so much during the day. The en- 
trances of the two passes of Lotsch and Yiesch pre- 
sented a truly magical effect ; for, as they are at 
right angles with the direction of the glacier, the 
mountains which bound them on the south project 



90 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

into them shadows of a fantastic grandeur, whilst 
the heavy clouds collected behind the Aletschhorn, 
gave to the picture all the vigor worthy of such a 
subject. Add to this, that there was a perfect calm 
in the atmosphere, and that an absolute silence 
reigned around us, and it will be understood that we 
still felt extreme pleasure in gazing on this wonder- 
ful spectacle, notwithstanding that all day we had 
been looking on prospects of marvellous splendor. 

Very soon we entered the region of crevasses. 
Then we judged it prudent to have recourse to the 
cord again ; for although the light of the moon was 
very lovely, it was not sufficiently strong to enable 
us always to discern precisely when we were on old 
snow and when on that which had recently fallen, 
especially during the first quarter of an hour. In 
fact, we all made summersaults by turns, the guides 
as well as ourselves. There was, indeed, one mo- 
ment in which we began to feel really uneasy as to 
the issue of this crossing ; for at almost every step 
one o r another had to be drawn out of a crevasse. 
However, by degrees, we learnt to avoid them, and 
we completed this part of .the journey without any 
serious accident. 

After having made a good supper we once more 
put ourselves en route for the last stage. There re- 
mained before us about three leagues, but excepting 
these crevasses which we had still to leap, the way 
was easy, and we arrived, before we suspected that 
we were so near, at the Lake of Morjelen. Here we 
made a last halt in order that we might thoroughly 
admire a magnificent spectacle. The blocks of 



THE JUNGFRAU. 91 

floating ice which swam on the surface of the water 
glistened beautifully in the moonlight ; while at the 
same time the edge of the glacier appeared like an 
immense wall of crystal, and then what added to 
the beauty of the scene was, that arriving just at 
the time when the moon was about to pass behind 
the mountain mass which headed the lake we saw 
in a quarter of an hour effects of light and contrasts 
the most various. It was a worthy ending to such 
a day. 

E. Desob. 



YI. 

THE GALENSTOCK. 

ASCENT IN 1845 BY MM. E. DESOR, DOLLEUS-AUSSET, 
AND DANIEL DOLLFUS. 

All who have visited the Oberland and are pos- 
sessed of the least observation, even among ordinary 
tourists, must have remarked, in the midst of the 
numerous bold and steep peaks, a mountain dis- 
tinguished from the others by its rounded form, 
which represents a magnificent cupola of snow. 
This is the Galenstock (15,853 feet high), which 
stands right over the splendid glacier of the Rhone, 
at the culminating point of the chain which 
separates the Yalais from the canton of Uri. I 
had several times conceived the project of going to 
study it on the spot, and had conversed with the 
most experienced guides on the subject ; but they, 
without combating the idea, had, nevertheless, never 
seemed disposed to encourage it ; not that they 
thought the mountain too high or too steep, but 
on account of its peculiar form. 

1 You must take notice,' said Jacob Leuthold to 
me, ' that this is a mountain by itself. It has an 
inclined slope of ice uninterrupted for more than 



THE GALENSTOCK. 93 

3000 feet, which we could only scale by cutting 
steps the whole way. In a case of necessity this 
might be done ; but on a hot day we should run 
the risk of finding these steps melted on our return. 
And you know that to cut others in descending and 
backwards would be no easy matter. Still there is 
one way of doing the thing,' he added, after an 
instant's reflection, ' we might try it some day after 
a heavy snow, in August or September.' 

The brave Leuthold was not, however, to have 
the satisfaction. He died the same year ; and for 
a long while no one spoke of the Galenstock. 

It was in 1845 that an opportunity presented 
itself of reviving the project of ascent which seemed 
to have been forgotten. One day, when we had 
been interrupted in the course of our observations 
by one of those violent tempests which sometimes 
break suddenly over the higher valleys,* we were 
obliged to beat a retreat, and it was not without 
difficulty that we reached the G-rimsel. Hardly had 
we arrived at the hospice when the weather suddenly 

* Mr. Tuckett writes to the "Alpine Journal " in 1865 : "I left 
Geschenen at 3:30 a.m. on the 16th of July, with Christian and 
Peter Michel of Grindelwald, and, after a charming walk through 
lovely scenery and amidst magnificent specimens of glacier action, 
found myself, at 6 :20, at the little collection of houses called the 
Geschenen Alp (near the Galenstock). Here the curd was taking 
his morning walk, and I took the opportunity of a halt for break- 
fast to have a little chat with him . He stated that the Alp was 
inhabited all the year round : that last winter had been a remark* 
ably mild one, as the snow had only lain twenty-five feet deep, 
instead of covering the chapel altogether, and rising above the 
eaves of his house, as usual." 



94 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

cleared up. To the tempestuous day succeeded a 
superb aud perfectly calm evening. But the snow 
had fallen in too great a quantity to permit us 
immediately to resume our studies, and we met on 
the steps of the old hospice, and were deploring 
together that we were prevented from taking ad- 
vantage of such fine weather, when our principal 
guide, he who had taken Jacob Leuthold's place, 
drew me aside. 

'You remember what Jacob said to you two 
years ago ? Poor Jacob, if he could have been here 
now !' 

' What would happen then ?' I asked him. 

1 Why, we would go to-morrow ' 

< Where ?' 

' To the Galenstock. Now is the time or never,' 
he added ; ' for there must be at least some feet of 
snow up there ; if we set out early before the thaw 
begins we should mount without any difficulty ; and 
as to the descent, why we would make a grand 
sledge party of it. What do you think of it ?' 

I went at once to consult with MM. Dollfus, 
father and son, and, after some consideration, it 
was decided that we should make the attempt. The 
instruments which we expected to want were packed 
up at once, the provisions prepared, and M. Dollfus 
brought out a roll of stuff, of which he had always 
a stock, that he might cut out a flag which was to 
float from the top of the Galenstock. 

Next day, the 18th of August, at three o'clock 
in the morning, we set out on the road towards the 
Col du Grimsel. The company was composed of 



THE GALENSTOCK. 95 

eight persons, M. Dollfus-Ausset, his son Daniel, and 
myself, accompanied by five guides. At four o'clock 
we had reached the elevation of the Col, the summit 
of which is occupied by the Lac des Morts. The 
sky was without a cloud, and the chain of Monte 
Rosa appeared like an immense fire of red-hot coals 
in the brilliant morning tints, whilst the lower chains 
allowed us to see over their valleys that transparent 
halo which our celebrated landscape-painter, Ca- 
lame, has so happily depicted in the splendid paint- 
ing of Monte Rosa, which is so much admired in 
the museum of Neufchatel. 

From the first plateau we descended by an easy 
slope, though a somewhat steep one, on to the 
upper part of the glacier of the Rhone, which we 
crossed without any difficulty, taking care, however, 
to attach ourselves to one another, on account of 
the crevasses hidden by the fresh snow. The gla- 
cier once crossed, we soon reached the mass of the 
Galenstock itself, directing our steps zigzag to- 
wards the lower part of the ridge. The snow was 
frozen, and only yielded an inch or two under our 
feet. Without causing any fatigue, it just gave 
way enough to afford secure footing. It was not 
ten o'clock when we reached the depression in ques- 
tion, which we have designated by the name of the 
Col de Galen. The view which one has from this 
point is imposing ; it embraces, on one side, the 
great chain of the Finsteraarhorn and its deep 
valleys ; on the other, the upper part of the valley 
of Realp, which is passed through in going from 
Andermatt to La Furka. 



96 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

We took our way at eleven o'clock towards the 
culminating point, ascending a very gentle slope 
along the ridge, but keeping a certain distance from 
the edge ; for we had observed that, in the line of 
the principal declivity, the snow overhung the edge 
of the wall of rocks in several places. Never has 
any ascent of a high mountain been effected more 
easily and merrily than this. We might have been 
taken for a troop of school-boys going up the Naye 
or the Chasseral rather than for a party of naturalists 
making the conquest of a virgin peak of the Alps. 
On reaching the top I gave way to M. Dollfus, 
junior, that he might have the satisfaction of plant- 
ing the standard and taking possession, in some sort, 
in the name of Science, of a point on which the foot 
of man had not yet trodden. 

In a picturesque point of view we had occasion to 
verify, once more, the truth of a remark which we had 
often made ; for we were more than ever convinced 
that the charm of the views, from great elevations, 
consists much more in the details of the nearer points 
of interest than in the extent of the panorama which 
lies beneath the eye. That which fascinates is the 
sublime chaos of sharp ridges and pointed peaks in 
the midst of the vast fields of snow, of broken arches 
and detached pieces, out of which the most expe- 
rienced eye seeks in vain to reconstruct the original 
chain. Then there are the contrasts of light and 
shade which set these objects off in high relief. Here 
was, first, that deep crevasse of the Valley of the Aar, 
and that other, not less sombre, in which the Rhone 
plays his first frolics on leaving the glacier ; then, on 



THE GALENSTOCK. 97 

the plateau between the two valleys, were those two 
rounded rocks, stretching out their polished sur- 
faces, the witnesses of the ancient abodes of glaciers. 
There were, lastly, a little further on, the giants of 
the Alps, with their steep sides and toothed and 
rugged summits, seeming like old acquaintances, 
who recalled to us the happiest moments of our 
Alpine life, — amongst others, the Schreckhorn, 
on the top of which we still perceived the staff of 
the standard which I had planted there in 1842, 
with my friend, Escher de la Linth ; and a little 
further on, to the right, the three twin peaks of the 
Wetterhorn, which we had visited together in the 
preceding year, and of which one, the Eosenhorn, 
also retained tokens of our visit. We found our- 
selves, further, surrounded with "the same guides 
who had accompanied us up these different moun- 
tains, and who enjoyed not less than ourselves this 
grand spectacle. They found, above all, a great 
charm in recalling to each other, and to us, all the 
incidents of our different ascents, from the Jung- 
frau to the Galenstock, and in reviewing the diffi- 
culties encountered, and the dangers which we had 
run on each of these summits. 

It was nearly one o'clock when we set off again. 
The snow was considerably softened on the declivi- 
ties exposed to the sun, so much so that we sank 
knee-deep into it. On one side the slope was not 
sufficient in the direction which we had to go to per- 
mit us to slide. ' We wanted,' as the guides said, 
1 horses to the sledge ;' an expression which they 



98 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

use when they take their masters by the legs and 
run down the side of a mountain with them. 

We were now approaching the place where we 
had reason to believe that the snow sloped over the 
rocks. So we took care, for greater safety, to follow 
exactly our morning's track. We marched in a file, 
the guide Jaun being at the head of the column. 
I followed him at some paces back : then came M. 
Dollfus, junior ; after him three other guides, and 
at some distance behind, M. Dollfus, senior, ac- 
companied by the fifth guide. Merry and light- 
hearted we chatted about our good fortune, and 
about the surprise which the sight of our standard 
would cause to the tourists and guides of the Ober- 
land, as it floated on the summit of the inaccessible 
peak of the Galenstock, when, all at once, I saw a 
fissure in the ground open before me and split with 
the rapidity of lightning. I shall have ever before 
my mind's eye the spectacle of this gulf with its 
azure walls, though they only remained so for the 
twinkling of an eye, the time it takes for the side of 
a mountain to sink. The cleft, which had grazed 
my left foot in splitting, had passed between the 
legs of the guide who preceded me. Whether by in- 
stinct or by accident he had thrown himself on to 
the side of the mountain. Not a cry, not a sound 
escaped from my mouth during this scene. Bat 
when I turned to inquire of my companions I saw 
all faces horror-struck. They were not there in full 
number. At two steps behind me a stick was hang- 
ing over the abyss, but he who carried it had dis- 
appeared, borne away with the part of the moun- 



THE GALENSTOCK. 99 

tain which had just broken off. M. Dollfus, who 
was at a little distance, did not immediately under- 
stand the cause of the agitation. He was going to 
exhort us to be prudent, when he discovered that 
the party was no longer complete. And certainly, 
in presence of such a discovery, the emotion of a 
father needs neither excuse nor explanation. The 
one who was missing was his son ! 

Before we had time to collect ourselves, we were 
enveloped in a thick cloud of snow : this was, as it 
were, the dust of the fallen mass, which came over 
us like a whirlwind. It would be difficult to say 
what happened to us while in these circumstances. 
We expected every instant while this was going on 
to see another portion of the side of the mountain 
give way and draw us, in our turn, into the gulf, 
and a thousand plans and recollections rushed at 
once into my mind. What must then have passed 
through the soul of him whom we regarded as 
already a victim ! 

Little by little, however, I cannot possibly say in 
what space of time, the thick clouds of snow began 
to grow lighter, so that they permitted us to discern 
some forms. Hope also began to rekindle in us 
when we saw that no new crevasses were opening. 
I then immediately went to the edge of the preci- 
pice and stretched myself at full length on the 
snow, having first fastened round my waist a girdle 
with which M. Dollfus was always furnished, in 
order that the guides might, if necessary, draw me 
up again, if, from the weight of my body, another 
piece should detach itself from the side. I cannot 



100 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

describe the anxiety with which M. Dollfus, the 
lather, followed me with his eyes, or how many 
times he asked whether I did not see some trace of 
his son. At first I saw nothing except an enor- 
mous mass of moving snow at a depth of more than 
3000 feet below me. This was the mass which had 
fallen which was precipitating itself like an ava- 
lanche into the Yalley of Gorschen, above Eealp. 
After some instants, however, I thought that through 
the mist, and almost perpendicularly beneath me, 
just in the track of the avalanche, I could perceive 
a dark object. Was it he ? I did not yet dare to 
believe it ; above all, I did not dare to answer affirm- 
atively to all the questions asked by the guides. 
Soon, however, I had no doubt. It was my friend's 
hat and part of his shoulder which I saw. Another 
question, not less urgent, was to know whether he 
were living or dead. It was M. Dollfus who asked 
this time. It would have been very sweet to me, 
as may be imagined, to perceive, at this moment, a 
sign of life in him on whom I kept my eyes fixed, 
and to be able to reply at once to the despairing 
father, ' Your son lives !' But how could I nourish 
such a hope? It appeared to me that without a 
miracle he must have been crushed or smothered by 
the snow; yet still it was a sort of miracle that 
instead of being drawn down by the avalanche, he 
had remained there, so near the surface, at about 
eighty feet below us. A few moments afterwards 
I thought that I really could perceive a movement. 
He was not then dead ! The impression which this 
discovery produced may be imagined. But what 



THE GALENSTOCK. 101 

will not be understood, what will scarcely be be- 
lieved, is the devotion of which one of the guides 
at this moment gave proof. Hardly had I articu- 
lated those words, ' He lives !' than Hans Wahren, 
the chosen guide of M. Dollfus, precipitated himself 
over the edge of the crevasse. We all uttered a cry 
of terror when we saw him disappear. Happily he 
fell into the snow of the avalanche only thirty feet 
from the top, and as this snow was very soft, he 
sank so deeply that it was impossible for him to dis- 
engage himself. 

In the meanwhile, young M. Dollfus had begun 
to recover from the stun which the fall had caused. 
He made an effort to look up, and when he per- 
ceived me at the top of the precipice his first thought, 
as may be conceived, was for his father. The news 
that his father was safe and sound, and that he had 
not been drawn down like himself, restored his 
courage. He tried to rise, when he perceived that 
he had not the use of his right arm. Was it broken 
or put out of joint ? He could not tell yet. c But 
broken or dislocated it is nothing,' he cried to us, 
* since there is no one hurt but me.' 

How then did it happen that he had stopped in 
his fall at such a comparatively small distance? 
The fact was that in this long and abrupt slope of 
the Galenstock there was one isolated point of rock, 
a sort of little rocky pyramid, and against this that 
part of the fallen mass struck on which M. Dollfus 
was. A portion of the snow remained there, and 
in it he whom it had drawn with it in its fall. If he 
had been in any other part of this great mass h« 



102 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

must infallibly have been drawn with the avalanche, 
and would not have been long in disappearing amidst 
its gigantic heaps. 

We had now to consider what means we should 
take to rescue M. Dollfus from this position. And 
we did not exactly see what to do. We knew, how- 
ever, one thing, which was that we were not going 
to return without him. But our guides, generally 
so calm in the presence of danger, were completely 
at a loss now. There was no way of effecting our 
descent down the declivity which the avalanche had 
taken. It was therefore indispensable to draw M. 
Dollfus up again. But between him and us there 
was first a vertical wall of over thirty feet, the edge 
of the crumbled neve, then a very steep slope repre- 
senting a height of some fifty feet. 

In order to proceed with as much method as pos- 
sible, we fastened a cord round one of the guides 
and let him down thirty feet to the place where his 
comrade Wahren was stuck fast ; and first he as- 
sisted him to get free, after which they endeavored 
to descend by one of those tricks of which only the 
chamois-hunters have the secret, and which consists 
in finding the exact spots in which the snow is suffi- 
ciently firm to bear a man's weight. 

They managed this by dint of address and pa- 
tience, and by literally clinging to the snow, to reach 
M. Dollfus, whom they had in the first place almost 
to disinter. But when they had got him out, they 
discovered with dismay that he had not only an 
injured arm, but that his leg also was so much hurt 
that it could do him no service. And how then 



THE GALENSTOCK. 103 

could a man in such a state be raised up an accliv- 
ity of 60 and sometimes 70 degrees. Had it been 
a descent the thing would have been impossible ; 
but there are always more resources for an ascent. 
So our two brave men manoeuvred so well that 
they got M. Dollfus to the top of the slope. They 
then fastened the cord round him, and we drew him 
up to us, taking care to pull the cord over our 
sticks which we had placed over the edge of the 
precipice. We employed the same means to raise 
the two guides, who arrived safe and sound at the 
top. 

Several long hours had passed in this search, and 
these efforts to recover him whom we had thought 
lost. When we were all once more together again 
on the top of the precipice, the sun was already 
visibly sinking over the Finsteraarhorn. M. Dollfus 
was unable to walk, so one of the guides took him 
on his back and carried him to the Col de Galen. 
It was there that we meant to take some refresh- 
ment, because then only could we believe ourselves 
entirely out of danger. 

E. Desob. 



VII. 

THE 31ATTERH0RN. 

A SOLITAEY SCKAMBLE IN 1862. 

Sunday, the 6th of July, was showery, and snow 
fell on the Matterhorn, but we started on the follow- 
ing morning with our three men, and pursued my 
route of the previous year. I was requested to di- 
rect the way, as none save myself had been on the 
mountain before ; but I did not distinguish myself 
on this occasion, and led my companions nearly to 
the top of the small peak before the mistake was 
discovered. The party becoming rebellious, a little 
exploration was made towards our right, and we 
found we were upon the top of the cliff overlooking 
the Col du Lion. The upper part of the small peak 
is of a very different character to the lower part ; 
the rocks are not so firm, and they are usually cov- 
ered, or intermixed with snow, and glazed with ice : 
the angle too is more severe. While descending a 
small snow-slope, to get on to the right track, 
Kronig slipped on a streak of ice, and went down at 
a fearful pace. Fortunately he kept on his legs, 
and, by a great effort, succeeded in stopping just 
before he arrived at some rocks that jutted through 




THE MATTERIIORN 



THE MATTERHORN. 105 

the snow, which would infallibly have knocked him 
over. When we rejoined him a few minutes later, 
we found that he was incapable of standing, much 
less moving, with a face corpse-like in hue, and 
trembling violently. He remained in this condition 
for more than an hour, and the day was consequent- 
ly far advanced before we arrived at our camping- 
place on the Col. Profiting by the experience of 
last year, we did not pitch our tent actually on the 
snow, but collected a quantity of debris from the 
neighboring ledges, and after constructing a rough 
platform of the larger pieces, levelled the whole with 
the dirt and mud. 

Three times I had essayed the ascent of this 
mountain, and on each occasion had failed ignomin- 
iously. I had not advanced a yard beyond my 
predecessors. Up to the height of nearly 13,000 
feet there were no extraordinary difficulties ; the 
way so far might even become " a matter of amuse- 
ment." Only 1800 feet remained ; but they were as 
yet untrodden, and might present the most formida- 
ble obstacles. No man could expect to climb them 
by himself. A morsel of rock only seven feet high 
might at any time defeat him, if it were perpendicu- 
lar. Such a place might be possible to two, or a 
bagatelle to three men. It was evident that a party 
should consist of three men at least. But where 
could the other two men be obtained ? Carrel was 
the only man who exhibited any enthusiasm in the 
matter ; and he, in 1861, absolutely refused to go 
unless the party consisted of at least four persons. 



106 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

Want of men made the difficulty, not the mountain. 
The weather became bad again, so I went to Zer- 
matt on the chance of picking up a man, and re- 
mained there during a week of storms. Not one of 
the good men, however, could be induced to come, 
and I returned to Breil on the 17th, hoping to com- 
bine the skill of Carrel with the willingness of Mey- 
net on a new attempt, by the same route as before ; 
for the Hornli ridge, which I had examined in the 
meantime, seemed to be entirely impracticable. 
Both men were inclined to go, but their ordinary 
occupations prevented them from starting at once. 

My tent had been left rolled up at the second 
platform, and whilst waiting for the men it occurred 
to me that it might have been blown away during 
the late stormy weather ; so I started off on the 18th 
to see if this were so or not. The way was by this 
time familiar, and I mounted rapidly, astonishing 
the friendly herdsmen — who nodded recognition as 
I flitted past them and the cows — for I was alone, 
because no man was available. But more delibera- 
tion was necessary when the pastures were passed, 
and climbing began, for it was needful to mark each 
step, in case of mist, or surprise by night. It is one 
of the few things which can be said in favor of 
mountaineering alone (a practice which has little be- 
sides to commend it), that it awakens a man's facul- 
ties, and makes him observe. When one has no 
head to guide him except his own, he must needs 
take note even of small things, for he cannot afford 
to throw away a chance ; and so it came to pass, 
upon my solitary scramble, when above the snow- 



THE MATTERHORN. 107 

line, and beyond the ordinary limits of flowering 
plants, when peering about noting angles and land- 
marks, that my eyes fell upon the tiny straggling 
plants — oftentimes a single flower on a single stalk 
— pioneers of vegetation, atoms of life in a world of 
desolation, which had found their way up — who can 
tell how ? — from far below, and were obtaining bare 
sustenance from the scanty soil in protected nooks ; 
and it gave a new interest to the well-known rocks 
to see what a gallant fight the survivors made (for 
many must have perished in the attempt) to ascend 
the great mountain. The Gentian, as one might 
have expected, was there, but it was run close by 
Saxifrages, and by Linaria alpina, and was beaten 
by Thlaspi rotundifolium, which latter plant was the 
highest I was able to secure, although it too was 
overtopped by a little white flower which I knew not, 
and was unable to reach. 

The tent was safe, although snowed up; and I 
turned to contemplate the view, which, when seen 
alone and undisturbed, had all the strength and 
charm of complete novelty. The highest peaks of 
the Pennine chain were in front — the Breithorn 
(13,685 feet), the Lyskamm (14,889), and Monte 
Bosa (15,217) ; then, turning to the right, the entire 
block of mountains which separated the Yal Tour- 
nanche from the Val d'Ayas was seen at a glance, 
with its dominating summit the Grand Tournalin 
(11,155). Behind were the ranges dividing the Ya] 
d'Ayas from the Valley of Gressoney, backed by 
higher summits. More still to the right, the eye 
wandered down the entire length of the Yal Tour- 



108 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

nanche, and then rested upon the Graian Alps with 
their innumerable peaks, and upon the isolated pyr- 
amid of Monte Viso (12,643) in the extreme distance. 
Next, still turning to the right, came the mountains 
intervening between the Val Tournanche and the 
Val Barthelemy : Mont Rouss (a round-topped 
snowy summit, which seems so important from 
Breil, but which is in reality only a buttress of the 
higher mountain, the Chateau des Dames), had long 
ago sunk, and the eye passed over it, scarcely heed- 
ing its existence, to the Becca Salle (or, as it is 
printed on the map, Bee de Sale), — a miniature 
Matterhorn — and to the other, and more important 
heights. Then the grand mass of the Dent d'Herens 
(13,714) stopped the way ; a noble mountain, en- 
crusted on its northern slopes with enormous hang- 
ing glaciers, which broke away at mid-day in im- 
mense slices, and thundered down on to the Tiefen- 
matten glacier ; and lastly, most splendid of all, 
came the Dent Blanche (14,318), soaring above the 
basin of the great Z'Muttgletscher. Such a view is 
hardly to be matched in the Alps, and this view is 
very rarely seen, as I saw it, perfectly unclouded. 

Time sped away unregarded, and the little birds 
which had built their nests on the neighbouring 
cliffs had begun to chirp their evening hymn before 
I thought of returning. Half mechanically I turned 
to the tent, unrolled it, and set it up ; it contained 
food enough for several days, and I resolved to stay 
over the night. I had started from Breil without 
provisions, or telling Favre — the innkeeper, who 
was accustomed to my erratic ways — where I was 



THE MATTERHORN. 109 

going. I returned to the view. The sun was set- 
ting, and its rosy rays, blending with the snowy blue, 
had thrown a pale, pure violet far as the eye could 
see ; the valleys were drowned in a purple gloom, 
while the summits shone with unnatural brightness ; 
and as I sat in the door of the tent, and watched 
the twilight change to darkness, the earth seemed 
to become less earthy and almost sublime ; the 
world seemed dead, and I, its sole inhabitant, By 
and by, the moon as it rose brought the hills again 
into sight, and by a judicious repression of detail 
rendered the view yet more magnificent. Something 
in the south hung like a great glow-worm in the air ; 
it was too large for a star, and too steady for a me- 
teor ; and it was long before I could, realize the in- 
credible fact that it was the moonlight glittering on 
the great snow- slope on the north side of Monte 
Viso, at a distance, as the crow flies, of 98 miles. 
Shivering, at last I entered the tent and made my 
coffee. The night was passed comfortably, and the 
next morning, tempted by the brilliancy of the 
weather, I proceeded yet higher up in search of an- 
other place for a platform. 

The rocks of the southwest ridge are by no means 
difficult for some distance above the Col du Lion. 
This is true of the rocks up to the level of the Chim- 
ney, but they steepen when that is passed, and re- 
maining smooth and with but few fractures, and still 
continuing to dip outwards, present some steps of a 
very uncertain kind, particularly when they are 
glazed with ice. At this point (just above the 
Chimney) the climber is obliged to follow the south- 



110 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

ern (or Breil) side of the ridge, but, in a few feet 
more, one must turn over to the northern (or 
Z'Mutt) side, where, in most years, nature kindly 
provides a snow-slope. When this is surmounted, 
one can again return to the crest of the ridge, and 
follow it, by easy rocks, to the foot of the Great 
Tower. This was the highest point attained by Mr. 
Hawkins in 1860, and it was also our highest on the 
9th of July. 

This Great Tower is one of the most striking fea- 
tures of the ridge. It stands out like a turret at the 
angle of a castle. Behind it a battlemented wall 
leads upwards to the citadel. Seen from the Theo- 
dule pass, it looks only an insignificant pinnacle, 
but as one approaches it (on the ridge) so it seems 
to rise, and when one is at its base, it completely 
conceals the upper parts of the mountain. I found 
here a suitable place for the tent ; which, although 
not so well protected as the second platform, pos- 
sessed the advantage of being 300 feet higher up ; 
and fascinated by the wildness of the cliffs, and en- 
ticed by the perfection of the weather, I went on to 
see what was behind. 

The first step was a difficult one ; the ridge be- 
came diminished to the least possible width — it was 
hard to keep one's balance — and just where it was 
narrowest, a more than perpendicular mass barred 
the way. Nothing fairly within arm's reach could 
be laid hold of ; it was necessary to spring up, and 
then to haul one's-self over the sharp edge by sheer 
strength. Progression directly upwards was then 
impossible. Enormous and appalling precipices 



THE MATTEEHORN. Ill 

plunged down to the Tiefenmatten glacier on the 
left, but round the righthand side it was just possi- 
ble to go. One hindrance then succeeded another, 
and much time was consumed in seeking the way. 
I have a vivid recollection of a gully of more than 
usual perplexity at the side of the Great Tower, 
with minute ledges and steep walls ; of the ledges 
dwindling down and at last ceasing ; and of finding 
myself, with arms and legs divergent, fixed as if cru- 
cified, pressing against the rock, and feeling each 
rise and fall of my chest as I breathed ; of screwing 
my head round to look for hold, and not seeing any, 
and of jumping sideways on to the other side. 

This long digression has been caused by an inno- 
cent gully which I feared the reader might think 
was dangerous. It was an untrodden vestibule 
which led to a scene so wild that even the most so- 
ber description of it must seem an exaggeration. 
There was a change in the quality of the rock, and 
there was a change in the appearance of the ridge. 
The rocks (talcose gneiss) below this spot were sin- 
gularly firm ; it was rarely necessary to test one's 
hold ; the way led over the living rock, and not up 
rent-off fragments. But here, all was decay and 
ruin. The crest of the ridge was shattered and 
cleft, and the feet sank in the chips which had 
drifted down ; while above, huge blocks, hacked and 
carved by the hand of time, nodded to the sky, look • 
ing like the grave-stones of giants. Out of curiosi- 
ty I wandered to a notch in the ridge, between two 
tottering piles of immense masses, which seemed to 



112 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

need but a few pounds on one or the other side to 
make them fall ; so nicely poised that they would 
literally have rocked in the wind, for they were put 
in motion by a touch ; and based on support so frail 
that I wondered they did not collapse before my 
eyes. In the whole range of my Alpine experience 
I have seen nothing more striking than this desolate, 
ruined, and shattered ridge at the back of the Great 
Tower. I have seen stranger shapes, — rocks which 
mimic the human form, with monstrous leering faces 
— and isolated pinnacles, sharper and greater than 
any here ; but I have never seen exhibited so im- 
pressively the tremendous effects which may be 
produced by frost, and by the long-continued action 
of forces whose individual effects are imperceptible. 

It is needless to say that it is impossible to climb 
by the crest of the ridge at this part ; still one is 
compelled to keep near to it, for there is no other 
way. Generally speaking, the angles on the Mat- 
terhorn are too steep to allow the formation of con- 
siderable beds of snow, but here there is a corner 
which permits it to accumulate, and it is turned to 
gratefully, for, by its assistance, one can ascend four 
times as rapidly as upon the rocks. 

The Tower was now almost out of sight, and I 
looked over the central Pennine Alps to the Grand 
Combin, and to the chain of Mont Blanc. My 
neighbor, the Dent d'Herens, still rose above me, 
although but slightly, and the height which had 
been attained could be measured by its help. So 
far, I had no doubts about my capacity to descend 
that which had been ascended ; but, in a short time, 



THE MATTEEHORN. 113 

on looking ahead, I saw that the cliffs steepened, 
and I turned back (without pushing on to them, and 
getting into inextricable difficulties), exulting in the 
thought that they would be passed when we re- 
turned together, and that I had, without assistance, 
got nearly to the height of the Dent d'Herens, and 
considerably higher than any one had been before. 
My exultation was a little premature. 

About 5 P. M. I left the tent again, and thought 
myself as good as at Breil. The friendly rope and 
claw had done good service, and had smoothened 
all the difficulties. I lowered myself through the 
Chimney, however, by making a fixture of the rope, 
which I then cut off, and left behind, as there was 
enough and to spare. My axe had proved a great 
nuisance in coming down, and I left it in the tent. 
It was not attached to the baton, but was a sepa- 
rate affair, — an old navy boarding-axe. While cut- 
ting up the different snow-beds on the ascent, the 
baton trailed behind fastened to the rope ; and, when 
climbing, the axe was carried behind, run through 
the rope tied round my waist, and was sufficiently 
out of the way ; but in descending, when coming 
down face outwards (as is always the best where it 
is possible), the head or the handle of the weapon 
caught frequently against the rocks, and several 
times nearly upset me. So, out of laziness if you 
will, it was left in the tent. I dearly paid for the 
imprudence. 

The Col du Lion was passed, and fifty yards more 
would have placed me on the ' Great Staircase,' 
down which one can run. But on arriving at an 



114 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

angle of the cliffs, of the Tete du Lion, while skirt- 
ing the upper edge of the snow which abuts against 
them, I found that the heat of the two past days 
had nearly obliterated the steps which had been 
cut when coming up. The rocks happened to be 
impracticable just at this corner, so nothing could 
be done except make the steps afresh. The snow 
was too hard to beat or tread down, and at the 
angle it was all but ice ; half-a-dozen steps only 
were required, and then the ledges could be fol- 
lowed again. So I held to the rock with my right 
hand, and prodded at the snow with the point of 
my stick until a good step was made, and then, 
leaning round the angle, did the same for the other 
side. So far well, but in attempting to pass the 
corner (to the present moment I cannot tell how it 
happened) I slipped and fell. 

The slope was steep on which this took place, and 
was at the top of a gully that led down through two 
subordinate buttresses towards the Glacier du Lion 
— which was just seen, a thousand feet below. The 
gully narrowed and narrowed, until there was a 
mere thread of snow lying between two walls of 
rock, which came to an abrupt termination at the 
top of a precipice that intervened between it and 
the glacier. Imagine a funnel cut in half through 
its length, placed at an angle of 45 degrees, with its 
point below and its concave side uppermost, and you 
will have a fair idea of the place. 

The knapsack brought my head down first, and I 
pitched into some rocks about a dozen feet below ; 
they caught something and tumbled me off the 




FALL OF M DOLLl'US DO AN THE GALENSIOCK 



THE MATTEEHOEN. 115 

edge, head over heels, into the gully ; the baton was 
dashed from my hands, and I whirled downwards 
in a series of bounds, each longer than the last ; 
now over ice, now into rocks ; striking my head 
four or five times, each time with increased force. 
The last bound sent me spinning through the air, in 
a leap of fifty or sixty feet, from one side of the 
gully to the other, and I struck the rocks, luckily, 
with the whole of my left side. They caught my 
clothes for a moment, and I fell on to the snow 
with motion arrested ; my head fortunately came 
the right side up, and a few frantic catches brought 
me to a halt, in the neck of the gully, and on the 
verge of the precipice. Baton, hat, and veil skimmed 
by and disappeared, and the crash of the rocks — 
which I had started — as they fell on the glacier, told 
how narrow had been the escape from utter destruc- 
tion. As it was, I fell nearly 200 feet in seven 
or eight bounds. Ten feet more would have taken 
me in one gigantic leap of 800 feet on to the glacier 
below. 

The situation was still sufficiently serious. The 
rocks could not be left go for a moment, and the 
blood was spirting out of more than twenty cuts. 
The most serious ones were in the head, and I 
vainly tried to close them with one hand, while 
holding on with the other. It was useless ; the blood 
jerked out in blinding jets at every pulsation. At 
last, in a moment of inspiration, I kicked out a big 
lump of snow, and stuck it as a plaster on my head. 
The idea was a happy one, and the flow of blood 
diminished ; then, scrambling up, I got, not a mo- 



116 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

ment too soon, to a place of safety, and fainted 
away. The sun was setting when consciousness re- 
turned, and it was pitch dark before the Great Stair- 
case was descended ; but, by a combination of luck 
and care, the whole 4800 feet of descent to Breil 
was accomplished without a slip, or once missing 
the way. I slunk past the cabin of the cowherds, 
who were talking and laughing inside, utterly 
ashamed of the state to which I had been brought 
by my imbecility, and entered the inn stealthily, 
wishing to escape to my room unnoticed. But 
Favre met me in the passage, demanded ' Who is 
it ?' screamed with fright when he got a light, and 
aroused the household. Two dozen heads then 
held solemn council over mine, with more talk than 
action. The natives were unanimous in recom- 
mending that hot wine (syn. vinegar,) mixed with 
salt, should be rubbed into the cuts. I protested, 
but they insisted. It was all the doctoring they re- 
ceived. Whether their rapid healing was to be at- 
tributed to that simple remedy, or to a good state 
of health, is a question ; they closed up remarkably 
quickly, and in a few days I was able to move 
again. 

As it seldom happens that one survives such a 
fall, it may be interesting to record what my sensa- 
tions were during its occurrence. I was perfectly 
conscious of what was happening, and felt each 
blow ; but, like a patient under chloroform, expe- 
rienced no pain. Each blow was, naturally, more 
severe than that which preceded it, and I distinctly 
remember thinking ' Well, if the next is harder still, 



THE MATTERHORN. 117 

that will be the end !' Like persons who have been 
rescued from drowning, I remember that the recol- 
lection of a multitude of things rushed through my 
head, many of them trivialities or absurdities, which 
had been forgotten long before ; and, more remark- 
able, this bounding through space did not feel disa- 
greeable. But I think that in no very great dis- 
tance more, consciousness as well as sensation would 
have been lost, and upon that I base my belief, im- 
probable as it seems, that death by a fall from a 
great height is as painless an end as can be expe- 
rienced. 

The battering was very rough, yet no bones were 
broken. The most severe cuts were one of four 
inches long on the top of the head, and another of 
three inches on the right temple : this latter bled 
frightfully. There was a formidable-looking cut, of 
about the same size as the last, on the palm of the 
left hand, and every limb was grazed or cut, more 
or less seriously. The tips of the ears were taken 
off, and a sharp rock cut a circular bit out of the 
side of the left boot, sock, and ankle, at one stroke. 
The loss of blood, although so great, did not seem 
to be permanently injurious. The only serious 
effect has been the reduction of a naturally reten- 
tive memory to a very common-place one ; and al- 
though my recollections of more distant occurrences 
remain unshaken, the events of that particular day 
would be clean gone but for the few notes which 
were written down before the accident. 



118 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 



AN ASCENT BY MR. E. WHYMPER, LORD DOUGLAS, 
REV. C. HUDSON, AND MR. HADOW, IN JULY 1865. 

On Wednesday morning, the 12th of July, Lord 
Francis Douglas and myself crossed the Col Theo- 
dule, to seek guides at Zermatt. After quitting 
the snow on the northern side we rounded the foot 
of the glacier, crossing the Furgge Glacier, and left 
my tent, ropes, and other matters in the little chapel 
at the Lac Noir. We then descended to Zermatt, 
engaged Peter Taugwalder, and gave him permis- 
sion to choose another guide. In the course of the 
evening the Rev. Charles Hudson came into our 
hotel with a friend, Mr. Hadow ; and they, in answer 
to some inquiries, announced their intention of start- 
ing to attempt the Matterhorn on the following 
morning. Lord Francis Douglas agreed with me 
that it was undesirable that two independent parties 
should be on the mountain at the same time, and 
with the same object. Mr. Hudson was therefore 
invited to join us, and he accepted our proposal. 
Before admitting Mr. Hadow I took the precaution 
to inquire what he had done in the Alps ; and, as 
well as I can remember, Mr. Hudson's reply was, 
' Mr. Hadow has done the Mont Blanc in less time 
than most men.' He then mentioned several other 
excursions that were then unknown to me, and 
added, in answer to a further question, * I consider 
he is a sufficiently good man to go with us.' This 
was an excellent certificate, given as it was by a first- 



THE MATTEEHORN. 119 

rate mountaineer, and Mr. Hadow was admitted 
without any further question. 

We then went into the matter of guides. Michel 
Croz was with Messrs. Hadow and Hudson ; and 
the latter thought if Peter Taugwalder went as well, 
that there would not be occasion for any one else. 
The question was then referred to the men them- 
selves, and they made no objection. 

We started from Zermatt on the 13th of July, at 
half-past 5, on a brilliant and perfectly cloudless 
morning. We were eight in number — Croz, old 
Peter and his two sons, Lord F. Douglas, Hadow, 
Hudson, and I. To ensure steady motion, one 
tourist and one native walked together. The young- 
est Taugwalder fell to my share, and the lad marched 
well, proud to be on the expedition, and happy to 
show his powers. The wine-bags also fell to my lot 
to carry, and throughout the day, after each drink, 
I replenished them secretly with water, so that at 
the next halt they were found fuller than before! 
This was considered a good omen, and little short of 
miraculous. 

On the first day we did not intend to ascend to 
any great height, and we mounted, accordingly, very 
leisurely ; picked up the things which were left in 
the chapel at the Schwarzsee at 8:20, and proceeded 
thence along the ridge connecting the Hornli with 
the Matterhorn. At half-past 11 we arrived at the 
base of the actual peak ; then quitted the ridge, and 
clambered round some ledges, on to the eastern 
face. We were now fairly upon the mountain, and 
were astonished to find that places which from the 



120 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

Eiffel, or even from the Furggengletscher, looked 
entirely impracticable, were so easy that we could 
run about. 

Before twelve o'clock we had found a good posi- 
tion for the tent, at a height of 11,000 feet. Croz 
and young Peter went on to see what was above, in 
order to save time on the following morning. They 
cut across the heads of the snow-slopes which de- 
scended towards the Furggengletscher, and disap- 
peared round a corner ; but shortly afterwards we 
saw them high up on the face, moving quickly. We 
others made a solid platform for the tent in a well- 
protected spot, and then watched eagerly for the re- 
tarn of the men. The stones which they upset told 
that they were very high, and we supposed that the 
way must be easy. At length, just before 3 p.m., we 
saw them coming down, evidently much excited. 
"What are they saying, Peter?" " Gentlemen, they 
say it is no good." But when they came near we 
heard a different story. " Nothing but what was 
good ; not a difficulty, not a single difficulty ! We 
could have gone to the summit and returned to-day 
easily !' 

We passed the remaining hours of daylight — some 
basking in the sunshine, some sketching or collect- 
ing ; and when the sun went down, giving, as it de- 
parted, a glorious promise for the morrow, we re- 
turned to the tent to arrange for the night. Hud- 
son made tea, T coffee, and we then retired each one 
to his blanket-bag ; the Taugwalders, Lord Francis 
Douglas, and myself, occupying the tent, the others 
remaining, by preference, outside. Long after dusk 



THE MATTERHORN. 121 

the cliffs above echoed with our laughter and with 
the songs of the guides, for 'we were happy that 
night in camp, and feared no evil. 

We assembled together outside the tent before 
dawn on the morning of the 14th, and started 
directly it was light enough to move. Young Peter 
came on with us as a guide, and his brother returned 
to Zermatt. We followed the route which had been 
taken on the previous day, and in a few minutes 
turned the rib which had intercepted the view of the 
eastern face from our tent platform. The whole of 
this great slope was now revealed, rising for 3000 
feet like a huge natural staircase. Some parts were 
more, and others were less, easy ; but we were not 
once brought to a halt by any serious impediment, 
for when an obstruction was met in front it could 
always be turned to the right or to the left. For the 
greater part of the way there was, indeed, no occa- 
sion for the rope, and sometimes Hudson led, some- 
times myself. At 6:20 we had attained a height of 
12,800 feet, and halted for half-an-hour ; we then 
continued the ascent without a break until 9:55, 
when we stopped for 50 minutes, at a height of 
14,000 feet. Twice we. struck the N.E. ridge, and 
followed it for some little distance, — to no advantage, 
for it was usually more rotten and steep, and always 
more difficult than the face. Still, we kept near to 
it, lest stones perchance might fall. 

We had now arrived at the foot of that part 
which, from the Riffelberg or from Zermatt, seems 
perpendicular or overhanging, and could no longer 
continue upon the eastern side. For a little distance 



122 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

we ascended by snow upon the arete — that is, the 
ridge — descending towards Zermatt, and then, by 
common consent, turned over to the right, or to the 
northern side. Before doing so, we made a change 
in the order of ascent. Croz went first, I followed, 
Hudson came third ; Hadow and old Peter were last. 
' Now,' said Croz, as he led off, ' now for something 
altogether different.' The work became difficult, 
and required caution. In some places there was 
little to hold, and it was desirable that those should 
be in front who were least likely to slip. The 
general slope of the mountain at this part was less 
than 40°, and snow had accumulated in, and had 
filled up, the interstices of the rock-face, leaving 
only occasional fragments projecting here and there. 
These were at times covered with a thin film of ice. 
produced from the melting and refreezing of the 
snow. It was the counterpart, on a small scale, of 
the upper 700 feet of the Pointe des Ecrins, — only 
there was this material difference : the face of the 
Ecrins was about, or exceeded, an angle of 50°, and 
the Matterhorn face was less than 40°. It was a 
place over which any fair mountaineer might pass 
in safety, and Mr. Hudson ascended this part, and, 
as far as I know, the entire mountain, without hav- 
ing the slightest assistance rendered to him upon 
any occasion. Sometimes, after I had taken a hand 
from Croz, or received a pull, I turned to offer the 
same to Hudson ; but he invariably declined, say- 
ing that it was not necessar}\ Mr. Hadow, however, 
was not accustomed to this kind of work, and re- 
quired continual assistance. It is only fair to say 



THE MATTERHORN. 123 

that the difficulty which he found at this part arose 
simply and entirely from want of experience. 

This solitary difficult part was of no great extent. 
We bore away over it at first, nearly horizontally, 
for a distance of about 400 feet ; then ascended 
directly towards the summit for about 60 feet ; and 
then doubled back to the ridge which descends 
towards Zermatt. A long stride round a rather 
awkward corner brought us to snow once more. 
The last doubt vanished ! The Matterhorn was 
ours ! Nothing but 200 feet of easy snow remained 
to be surmounted. 

You must now carry your thoughts back to the 
seven Italians who smarted from Breil on the 11th of 
July. Four days had passed since their departure, 
and we were tormented with anxiety lest they should 
arrive on the top before us. All the way up we had 
talked of them, and many false alarms of ' men on 
the summit ' had been raised. The higher we rose, 
the more intense became the excitement. What if 
we should be beaten at the last moment? The 
slope eased off, at length we could be detached, and 
Croz and I, dashing away, ran a neck-and-neck 
race, which ended in a dead heat. At 1:40 p.m. the 
world was at our feet, and the Matterhorn was con- 
quered. Hurrah ! Not a footstep could be seen. 

It was not yet certain that we had not been 
beaten. The summit of the Matterhorn was formed 
of a rudely level ridge, about 350 feet long, and the 
Italians might have been at its farther extremity. I 
hastened to the southern end, scanning the snow 
right and loft eagerly. Hurrah ! again ; it was un- 



124 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

trodden. 'Where were the men?' I peered over 
the cliff, half doubting, half expectant. I saw them 
immediately — mere dots on the ridge, at an im- 
mense distance below. Up went my arms and my 
hat. ' Croz ! Croz ! ! come here !' ' Where are they, 
Monsieur ?' ' There, don't you see them, down 
there ?' ' Ah ! the coquins, they are low down ' 
' Croz, we must make those fellows hear us.' We 
yelled until we were hoarse/ The Italians seemed 
to regard us — we could not be certain. ' Croz, we 
must make them hear us ; they shall hear us !' I 
seized a block of rock and hurled it down, and 
called upon my companion, in the name of friend- 
ship, to do the same. We drove our sticks in, and 
pryed away the crags, and soon a torrent of stones 
poured down the cliffs. There was no mistake 
about it this time. The Italians turned and fled. 

The others had arrived, so we went back to the 
northern end of the ridge. Croz now took the tent- 
pole, and planted it in the highest snow. ' Yes,' we 
said, ' there is the flag-staff, but where is the flag ?' 
' Here it is,' he answered, pulling off his blouse and 
fixing it to the stick. It made a poor flag, and 
there was no wind to float it out, yet it was seen all 
around. They saw it at Zermatt — at the Riffel — in 
the Yal Tournanche. At Breil, the watchers cried, 
' Victory is ours !' They raised ' bravos ' for Carrel, 
and • vivas ' for Italy, and hastened to put them- 
selves en fete. On the morrow they were undeceived. 
' All was changed ; the explorers returned sad — cast 
down — disheartened — confounded — gloomy.' ' It is 
true,' said the men. ' We saw them ourselves — 



THE MATTERHORN. 125 

fcliey hurled stones at us ! The old traditions are 
true, — there are spirits on the top of the Matter- 
horn !' 

We returned to the southern end of the ridge to 
build a cairn, and then paid homage to the view. 
The day was one of those superlatively calm and 
clear ones which usually precede bad weather. The 
atmosphere was perfectly still, and free from all 
clouds or vapors. Mountains fifty — nay a hundred — 
miles off, looked sharp and near. All their details — 
ridge and crag, snow and glacier — stood out with 
faultless definition. Pleasant thoughts of happy 
days in bygone years came up unbidden, as we re- 
cognized the old familiar forms. All were revealed — 
not one of the principal peaks of the Alps was hid- 
den. I see them clearly now — the great inner circles 
of giants, backed by the ranges, chains, and massifs. 
First came the Dent Blanche, hoary and grand ; the 
Gabelhorn and pointed Rothhorn ; and then the 
peerless Weisshorn ; the towering Mischabelhorner, 
flanked by the Allaleinhorn, Strahlhorn, and Rimp- 
fischhorn ; then Monte Rosa — with its many Spit- 
zes — the Lyskamm and the Breithorn. Behind 
were the Bernese Oberland, governed by the Fins- 
teraarhorn ; the Simplon and St. Gothard groups ; 
the Disgrazia and the Orteler. Towards the south we 
looked down to Chivasso on the plain of Piedmont, 
and far beyond. The Yiso — one hundred miles 
away — seemed close upon us ; the Maritime Alps — 
one hundred and thirty miles distant — were free 
from haze. Then came my first love — the Pelvoux ; 
the Ecrins and the Meije ; the clusters of Graians . 



126 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

and lastly, in the west, gorgeous in the full sunlight, 
rose the monarch of all — Mont Blanc. Ten thousand 
feet beneath us were the green fields of Zermatt, dot- 
ted with chalets, from which blue smoke rose lazily. 
Eight thousand feet below, on the other side, were 
the pastures of Breil. There were forests black and 
gloomy, and meadows bright and lively ; bounding 
waterfalls and tranquil lakes ; fertile lands and sav- 
age wastes ; sunny plains and frigid plateaux. There 
were the most rugged forms, and the most graceful 
outlines — bold, perpendicular cliffs, and gentle, un- 
dulating slopes ; rocky mountains and snowy moun- 
tains, sombre and solemn, or glittering and white, with 
walls — turrets — pinnacles — pyramids — domes — 
cones — and spires ! There was every combination 
that the world can give, and every contrast the heart 
could desire. 

We remained on the summit for one hour — 

' One crowded hour of glorious life.' 

It passed away too quickly, and we began to pre- 
pare for the descent. 

DESCENT OF THE MATTERHORN. 

Hudson and I again consulted as to the best and 
safest arrangement of the party. We agreed that 
it would be best for Croz to go first, and Hadow 
second; Hudson, who was almost equal to a guide in 
sureness of foot, wished to be third ; Lord F. Doug- 
las was placed next, and old Peter, the strongest of 
the remainder, after him. I suggested to Hudson 



THE MATTEEHOEN. 127 

that we should attach a rope to the rocks on our ar- 
rival at the difficult bit, and hold it as we descended, 
as an additional protection. He approved the idea, 
but it was not definitely settled that it should be 
done. The party was being arranged in the above 
order whilst I was sketching the summit, and they 
had finished, and were waiting for me to be tied in 
fine, when some one remembered that our names 
had not been left in a bottle. They requested me 
to write them down, and moved off while it was 
being done. 

A few minutes afterwards I tied myself to young 
Peter, ran down after the others, and caught them 
just as they were commencing the descent of the 
difficult part. Great care was being taken. Only 
one man was moving at a time ; when he was firmly 
planted the next advanced, and so on. They had 
not, however, attached the additional rope to rocks, 
and nothing was said about it. The suggestion was 
not made for my own sake, and I am not sure that 
it even occurred to me again. For some little dis- 
tance we two followed the others, detached from 
them, and should have continued so had not Lord 
F. Douglas asked me, about 3 p.m., to tie on to old 
Peter, as he feared, he said, that Taugwalder would 
not be able to hold his ground if a slip occurred. 

A few minutes later, a sharp-eyed lad ran into the 
Monte Rosa hotel, to Seiler, saying that he had seen 
an avalanche fall from the summit of the Matter- 
horn on to the Matterhorngletscher. The boy was 
reproved for telling idle stories ; he was right, never- 
theless, and this was what he saw. 



128 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUBES. 

Miche] Croz had laid aside his axe, and in order 
to give Mr. Hadow greater security, was taking hold 
of his legs, and putting his feet, one by one, into 
their proper positions. As far as I know, no one 
was actually descending. I cannot speak with cer- 
tainty, because the two leading men were partially 
hidden from my sight by an intervening mass of 
rock, but it is my belief, from the movements of their 
shoulders, that Croz, having done as I have said, 
was in the act of turning round to go down a step 
or two himself ; at this moment Mr. Hadow slipped, 
fell against him, and knocked him over. I heard 
one startled exclamation from Croz, then saw him 
and Mr. Hadow flying downwards ; in another mo- 
ment Hudson was dragged from his steps, and Lord 
F. Douglas immediately after him. All this was the 
work of a moment. Immediately we heard Croz's 
exclamation, old Peter and I planted ourselves as 
firmly as the rocks would permit : the rope was taut 
between us, and the jerk came on us both as on one 
man. We held ; but the rope broke midway between 
Taugwalder and Lord Francis Douglas. For a few 
seconds we saw our unfortunate companions sliding 
downwards on their backs, and spreading out their 
hands, endeavoring to save themselves. They passed 
from our sight uninjured, disappeared one by one, 
and fell from precipice to precipice on to the Matter- 
horngletscher below, a distance of nearly 4000 feet 
in height. From the moment the rope broke it was 
impossible to help them. 

So perished our comrades! For the space oi 
half an hour we remained on the spot without mov- 



THE MATTERHORN. 



129 



ing a single step. The two men, paralyzed by ter- 
ror, cried like infants, and trembled in such a manner 
as to threaten us with the fate of the others. Old 
Peter rent the air with exclamations of ' Chamounix ! 
Oh, what will Chamounix say ?' He meant, Who 



M,fM. 




Wm 



Fatal Accident on the Matterhorn. 



would believe that Croz could fall? The youa£ 
man did nothing but scream or sob, c We are lost \ 
we are lost !' Fixed between the two, I could neither 
move up nor down. I begged young Peter to de- 
scend, but he dared not. Unless he did, we could 
not advance. Old Peter became alive to the danger, 
and swelled the cry, 'We are lost! we are lost!' 



130 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

Tlie father's fear was natural — lie trembled for his 
son ; the young man's fear was cowardly — he thought 
of self alone. At last old Peter smp*"°ned up cour- 
age, and changed his position to a rock to which he 
could fix the rope ; the young man then descended 
and we all stood together. Immediately we did so, 
I asked for the rope which had given way, and found, 
to my surprise — indeed, to my horror — that it was 
the weakest of the three ropes. It was not brought, 
and should not have been employed, for the purpose 
for which it was used. It was old rope, and, com- 
pared with the others, was feeble. It was intended 
as a reserve, in case we had to leave much rope be- 
hind, attached to rocks. I saw at once that a seri- 
ous question was involved, and made him give me 
the end. It had broken in mid-air, and it did not 
appear to have sustained previous injury. 

For more than two hours afterwards I thought 
almost every moment that the next would be my 
last ; for the Taugwalders, utterly unnerved, were 
not only incapable of giving assistance, but were in 
such a state that a slip might have been expected 
from them at any moment. After a time, we were 
able to do that which should have been done at first, 
and fixed rope to firm rocks, in addition to being 
tied together. These ropes were cut from time to 
time, and were left behind. Even with their assur- 
ance the men were afraid to proceed, and several 
times old Peter turned with ashy face and faltering 
limbs, and said, with terrible emphasis, 4 1 cannot /' 

About 6 p.m. we arrived at the snow upon the 
ridge descending towards Zermatt, and a 1 ! peril was 



THE MATTERHORN. 131 

over. We frequently looked, but in vain, for traces 
of our unfortunate companions ; we bent over the 
ridge and cried to them, but no sound returned. 
Convinced at last that they were neither within 
sight nor hearing, we ceased from our useless efforts ; 
and, too cast down for speech, silently gathered up 
our things, and the little effects of those who were 
lost, preparatory to continuing the descent. When, 
lo ! a mighty arch appeared, rising above the Lys- 
kamm, high into the sky. Pale, colorless, and noise- 
less, but perfectly sharp and denned, except where 
it was lost in the clouds, this unearthly apparition 
seemed like a vision from another world ; and, 
almost appalled, we watched with amazement the 
gradual development of two vast crosses, one on 
either side. If the Taugwalders had not been the 
first to perceive it, I should have doubted my senses. 
They thought it had some connection with the acci- 
dent, and I, after a while, that it might bear some 
relation to ourselves. But our movements had no 
effect upon it. The spectral forms remained motion- 
less. It was a fearful and wonderful sight ; unique 
in my experience, and impressive beyond description, 
coming at such a moment. 

I was ready to leave, and waiting for the others. 
They had recovered their appetites and the use of 
their tongues. They spoke in patois, which I did 
not understand. At length the son said in French, 
.'Monsieur.' 'Yes.' 'We are poor men ; we have 
lost our Herr ; we shall not get paid ; we can ill 
afford this.' ' Stop !' I said, interrupting him, ' that 
is nonsense ; I shall pay you, of course, just as if 



132 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

your Herr were here.' They talked together in their 
patois for a short time, and then the son spoke 
again. * We don't wish you to pay us. We wish 
you to write in the hotel-book at Zermatt, and to 
your journals, that we have not been paid.' ' What 
nonsense are you talking ? I don't understand you. 
What do you mean ?' He proceeded — ' Why, next 
year there will be many travellers at Zermatt, and 
we shall get more voyageurs' 

Who would answer such a proposition ? I made 
them no reply in words, but they knew very well 
the indignation that I felt. They filled the cup of 
bitterness to overflowing, and I tore down the cliff, 
madly and recklessly, in a way that caused them, 
more than once, to inquire if I wished to kill them. 
Night fell ; and for an hour the descent was con- 
tinued in the darkness. At half-past 9 a resting- 
place was found, and upon a wretched slab, barely 
large enough to hold the three, we passed six 
miserable hours. At daybreak the descent was re- 
sumed, and from the Hornli ridge we ran down to 
the chalets of Buhl, and on to Zermatt. Seller met 
me at his door, and followed in silence to my room. 
' What is the matter ?' ' The Taugwalders and I 
have returned.' He did not need more, and burst 
into tears ; but lost no time in useless lamentations, 
and set to work to arouse the village. Ere long a 
score of men had started to ascend the Hohlicht 
heights, above Kalbermatt and Z'Mutt, which com- 
manded the plateau of the Matterhorngletscher. 
They returned after six hours, and reported that 
they had seen the bodies lying motionless on the 



THE MATTEEHOEN. 133 

snow._ This was on Saturday ; and they proposed 
that we should leave on Sunday evening, so as to 
arrive upon the plateau at daybreak on Monday. 
Unwilling to lose the slightest chance, the Eev. J. 
M'Cormick and I resolved to start on Sunday morn- 
ing. The Zermatt man, threatened with excommu- 
nication by the priests if they failed to attend the 
early mass, were unable to accompany us. To 
several of them, at least, this was a severe trial, and 
Peter Perm declared with tears that nothing else 
would have prevented him from joining in the 
search for his old comrades. Englishmen came to 
our aid. The Eev. J. Robertson and Mr. J. Phill- 
potts offered themselves, and their guide Franz 
Andermatten ; another Englishman lent us Joseph 
Marie and Alexandre Lochmatter. Frederic Payot 
and Jean Tairraz, of Chamounix, also volunteered. 
We started at 2 a.m. on Sunday the 16th, and 
followed the route that we had taken on the pre- 
vious Thursday as far as the Hornli. From thence 
we went down to the right of the ridge, and mounted 
through the seracs of the Matterhorngletscher. By 
8:30 we had got to the plateau at the top of the gla- 
cier, and within sight of the corner in which we 
knew my companions must be. As we saw one 
weather-beaten man after another raise the telescope, 
turn deadly pale, and pass it on without a word to 
the next, we knew that all hope was gone. We ap- 
proached.. They had fallen below as they had fallen 
above — Croz a little in advance, Hadow near him, 
and Hudson some distance behind ; but of Lord F. 
Douglas we could see nothing. We left them where 



134 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

they fell ; buried in snow at the base of the grandest 
cliff of the most majestic mountain of the Alps. ■ 

All those who had fallen had been tied with the 
Manilla, or with the second and equally strong rope, 
and, consequently, there had been only one liuk — 
that between old Peter and Lord F. Douglas — 
where the weaker rope had been used. This had a 
very ugly look for Taugwalder, for it was not possi- 
ble to suppose that the others would have sanctioned 
the employment of a rope so greatly inferior in 
strength when there were more than 250 feet of the 
better qualities still remaining out of use. For the 
sake of the old guide (who bore a good reputation), 
and upon all other accounts, it was desirable that 
this matter should be cleared up ; and after my ex- 
amination before the court of inquiry which was 
instituted by the Government was over, I handed in 
a number of questions which were framed so as to 
afford old Peter an opportunity of exculpating him- 
self from the grave suspicions which at once fell 
upon him. The questions, I was told, were put and 
answered ; but the answers, although promised, 
have never reached me. 

Meanwhile, the adminstration sent strict injunc- 
tions to recover the bodies, and upon the 19th of 
July, twenty-one men of Zermatt accomplished that 
sad and dangerous task. Of the body of Lord 
Francis Douglas they, too, saw nothing ; it is pro- 
bably still arrested on the rocks above. The remains 
of Hudson and Hadow were interred upon the north 
side of the Zermatt Church, in the presence of a 
reverent crowd of sympathizing friends The body 



THE MATTEEHORN. 135 

of Michel Croz lies upon the other side, under a 
simpler tomb, whose inscription bears honorable 
testimony to his rectitude, to his courage, and to his 
devotion. 

So the traditional inaccessibility of the Matter- 
horn was vanquished, and was replaced by legends' 
of a more real character. Others will essay to scale 
its proud cliffs, but to none will it be the mountain 
that it was to its early explorers. Others may tread 
its summit-snows, but none will ever know the feel- 
ings of those who first gazed upon its marvellous 
panorama ; and none, I trust, will ever be compelled 
to tell of joy turned into grief, and of laughter into 
mourning. It proved to be a stubborn foe ; it re- 
sisted long, and gave many a hard blow ; it was de- 
feated at last with an ease that none could have 
anticipated, but, like a relentless enemy — conquered 
but not crushed — it took terrible vengeance. The 
time may come when the Matterhorn shall have 
passed away, and nothing, save a heap of shapeless 
fragments, will mark the spot where the great moun- 
tain stood ; for, atom by atom, inch by inch, and 
yard by yard, it yields to forces which nothing can 
withstand. That time is far distant; and, ages 
hence, generations unborn will gaze upon its awful 
precipices, and wonder at its unique form. How- 
ever exalted may be their ideas, and however exag- 
gerated their expectations, none will come to returu 
disappointed ! 

Edwabd Whympeb, Scrambles among the Alps, 1869. 



Yin. 

RESCUE FRO 31 A CREVASSE. 

Mk. Huxley and myself had been staying for some 
days at Grindelwald, hoping for steady weather, and 
looking at times into the wild and noble region 
which the Shreckhorn,the Wetterhorn,the Viescher- 
horner, and the Eiger feed with eternal snows. We 
had scanned the buttresses of the Jungfrau with a 
view to forcing a passage between the Jungfrau and 
the Monk from the Wengern Alp to the Aletsch 
glacier. The weather for a time kept hopes and 
fears alternately afloat, but finally it declared against 
us ; so we moved with the unelastic tread of beaten 
soldiers over the Great Sheideck, and up the Vale 
of Hash to the Grimsel. We crossed the pass 
whose planed and polished rocks had long ago at- 
tracted the attention of Sir John Leslie, though the 
solution which he then offered ignored the ancient 
glacier which we now know to have been the planing 
tool employed. On rounding an angle of the Mayen- 
wand, two travellers suddenly appeared in front ot 
us ; they were Mr. (now Sir John) Lubbock and his 
guide. He had been waiting at the new hotel 
erected by M. Seiler at the foot of the Mayenwand, 



RESCUE FROM A CREVASSE. 137 

expecting our arrival ; and finally, despairing of this, 
he had resolved to abandon the mountains, and was 
now bound for Brientz. In fact, the lakes of Swit- 
zerland, and the ancient men who once bivouacked 
along their borders, were to him the principal 
objects of interest ; and we caught him in the act 
of declaring a preference for the lowlands which we 
could not by any means share. 

We reversed his course, carried him with us down 
the mountain, and soon made ourselves at home in 
M. Seller's hotel. Here we had three days' training 
on the glacier and the adjacent heights, and on one 
of the days Lubbock and myself made an attempt 
upon the Galenstock. By the flank of the mountain, 
with the Rhone glacier on our right, we reached the 
heights over the ice cascade and crossed the glacier 
above the fall. The sky was clear and the air 
pleasant as we ascended ; but in the earth's atmo- 
sphere the sun works his swiftest necromancy, the 
lightness of air rendering it in a peculiar degree 
capable of change. Clouds suddenly generated came 
drifting up the valley of the Rhone, covering the 
glacier and swathing the mountain-tops, but leav- 
ing clear for a time the upper neve of the Rhone. 
Grandeur is conceded while beauty is sometimes 
denied to the Alps. But the higher snow-fields of 
the great glaciers are altogether beautiful — not 
throned in repellent grandeur, but endowed with 
a grace so tender as to suggest the loveliness of 
woman. 

The day was one long succession of surprises 
wrought by the cloud-filled and wind-rent air. We 



138 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

reached the top, and found there a gloom which 
might be felt. It was almost thick enough to cut 
each of us away from the vision of his fellows. But 
suddenly, in the air above us, the darkness would 
melt away, and the deep blue heaven would reveal 
itself spanning the dazzling snows. Beyond the 
glacier rose the black and craggy summit of the 
Finsteraarhorn, and other summits and other crags 
emerged in succession as the battle-clouds rolled 
away. But the smoke would again whirl in upon us, 
and we looked once more into infinite haze from the 
cornice which lists the mountain-ridge. Again the 
clouds are torn asunder, and again they close. And 
thus, in upper air, did the sun play a wild accompa- 
niment to the mystic music of the world below. 

From the Rhone glacier we proceeded down the 
Rhone valley to Yiesch, whence, in the cool twilight, 
all three of us ascended to the Hotel Jungfrau, on 
the JEggischhorn. This we made our head-quarters 
for some days, and here Lubbock and I decided 
to ascend the Jungfrau. The proprietor of the 
hotel keeps guides for this excursion, but his charges 
are so high as to be almost prohibitory. I, however, 
needed no guide in addition to my faithful Bennen ; 
but simply a porter of sufficient strength and skill to 
follow where he led. In the village of Laax, Bennen 
found such a porter — a young man named Bielander, 
who had the reputation of being both courageous 
and strong. He was the only son of his mother, 
and she was a widow. 

T.is young man and a second porter we sent on 
with our provisions to the Grotto of the Faulberg, 



RESCUE FROM A CREVASSE. 139 

where we were to spend the night. Between the 
JEggischhorn and this cave the glacier presents no 
difficulty which the most ordinary caution cannot 
overcome, and the thought of danger in connection 
with it never occurred to us. An hour and a half 
after the departure of our porters we slowly wended 
our way to the lake of Marjelin, which we skirted, 
and were soon upon the ice. The middle of the 
glacier was almost as smooth as a carriage-road, cut 
here and there by musical brooks produced by the 
superficial ablation. To Lubbock the scene opened 
out with the freshness of a new revelation, as, 
previously to this year, he had never been among 
the glaciers of the Alps. To me, though not new, 
the region had lost no trace of the interest with 
which I first viewed it. We moved briskly along 
the frozen incline, until, after a couple of hours' 
march, we saw a solitary human being standing on 
the lateral moraine of* the glacier, near the point 
where we were to quit it for the cave of the Faul- 
berg. 

At first this man excited no attention. He stood 
and watched us, but did not come towards us, 
until finally our curiosity was aroused by observing 
that he was one of our own two men. The glacier 
here is always cut by crevasses, which, while they 
present no real difficulty, require care. We ap- 
proached our porter, but he never moved ; and when 
we came up to him he looked stupid, and did not 
speak until he was spoken to. Bennen addressed 
him in the patois of the place, and he answered in 
the same patois. His answer must have been more 



140 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

than usually obscure, for Bennen misunderstood 
the most important part of it. ' My God !' he 
exclaimed, turning to us, ' Walters is killed!' 
Walters was the guide at the JEggischhorn, with 
whom, in the present instance, we had nothing to 
do. 'No, not Walters,' responded the man; 'it is 
my comrade that is killed.' Bennen looked at him 
with a wild bewildered stare. ' How killed ?' he 
exclaimed. ' Lost in a crevasse,' was the reply. We 
were all so stunned that for some moments we did 
not quite seize the import of the terrible statement. 
Bennen at length tossed his arms in the air, ex- 
claiming, ' Jesu Maria ! what am I to do ?' With 
the swiftness that some ascribe to dreams, I sur- 
rounded the fact with imaginary adjuncts, one of 
which was that the man had been drawn dead from 
the crevasse, and was now a corpse in the cave of 
the Faulberg ; for I took it for granted that, had he 
been still entombed, his comrade would have run or 
called for our aid. Several times in succession the 
porter affirmed that the missing man was certainly 
dead. ' How does he know that he is dead ?' Lub- 
bock demanded. 'A man is sometimes rendered 
insensible by a fall without being killed.' This ques- 
tion was repeated in German, but met with the same 
dogmatic response. ' Where is the man ?' I asked. 
1 There,' replied the porter, stretching his arm to- 
wards the glacier. ' In the crevasse?' A stolid 
1 Ja !' was the answer. It was with difficulty that 
I quelled an imprecation. 'Lead the way to the 
place, you blockhead,' and he led the way. 
We were soon beside a wide and jagged cleft 



RESCUE FROM A CREVASSE. 141 

which resembled a kind of cave more than an or- 
dinary crevasse. This cleft had been spanned by a 
snow bridge, now broken, and to the edge of which 
footsteps could be traced. The glacier at the place 
was considerably torn, but simple patience was 
the only thing needed to unravel its complexity. 
This quality our porter lacked, and, hoping to make 
shorter work of it, he attempted to cross the bridge. 
It gave way, and he went down, carrying an immense 
load of debris along with him. We looked into the 
hole, at one end of which the vision was cut short 
by darkness, w r hile immediately under the broken 
bridge it was crammed with snow and shattered 
icicles. We saw nothing more. We listened with 
strained attention, and from the depths of the 
glacier issued a low moan. Its repetition assured 
us that it was no delusion — the man was still alive. 
Bennen from the first had been extremely excited ; 
and the fact of his having, as a Catholic, saints 
and angels to appeal to, augmented his emotion. 
When he heard the moaning he became almost 
frantic. He attempted to get into the crevasse, 
but was obliged to recoil. It w T as quite plain that a 
second life was in danger, for my guide seemed to 
have lost all self-control. I placed my hand heavily 
upon his shoulder, and admonished him that upon 
his coolness depended the life of his friend. 'If 
you behave like a man, we shall save him ; if like a 
woman, he is lost.' 

A first-rate rope accompanied the party, but un- 
happily it was with the man in the crevasse Coats, 
waistcoats, and braces were instantly taken off and 



142 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

knotted together. I watched Bennen while this 
work was going on ; his hands trembled with ex- 
citement, and his knots were evidently insecure, 
The last junction complete, he exclaimed, ' Now let 
me down !' ' Not until each of these knots has been 
tested ; not an inch I'* Two of them gave way, and 
Lubbock's waistcoat also proved too tender for the 
strain. The debris was about forty feet from the 
surface of the glacier, but two intermediate promi- 
nences afforded a kind of footing. Bennen was 
dropped down upon one of these ; I followed, being 
let down by Lubbock and the other porter. Bennen 
then descended the remaining distance, and was 
followed by me. More could not find room. 

The shape and size of the cavity were such as to 
produce a kind of resonance, which rendered it 
difficult to fix the precise spot from which the 
sound issued ; but the moaning continued, becoming 
to all appearance gradually feebler. Fearing to 
wound the man, the ice-rubbish was cautiously 
rooted away ; it rang curiously as it fell into the 
adjacent gloom. A layer two or three feet thick 
was thus removed ; and finally, from the frozen mass, 
and so bloodless as to be almost as white as the sur- 
rounding snow, issued a single human hand. The 
fingers moved. Bound it we rooted, cleared the arm, 
and reached the knapsack, which we cut away. "We 
also regained our rope. The man's head was then 
laid bare, and my brandy-flask was immediately at 



* 'Ach, Herr, he replied to one of my remonstrances, 'Sein 
Sie nicht so hart.' 




RESCUE FROM A CREVASSE. 



BESCUE FROM A CREVASSE. 143 

his lips. He tried to speak, but his words jumbled 
themselves to a dull moan. Bennen's feelings got 
the better of him at intervals ; he wrought like 
a hero, but at times he needed guidance and stern 
admonition. The arms once free, we passed the 
rope underneath them, and tried to draw the man 
out. But the ice-fragments round him had regelated 
so as to form a solid case. Thrice we essayed to 
draw him up, thrice we failed ; he had literally to 
be hewn out of the ice, and not until his last foot 
was extricated were we able to lift him. By pulling 
him from above, and pushing him from below, the 
man was at length raised to the surface of the gla- 
cier. 

For an hour we had been in the crevasse in shirt- 
sleeves — the porter had been in it for two hours — 
and the dripping ice had drenched us. Bennen, 
moreover, had worked with the energy of madness, 
and now the reaction came. He shook as if he 
would fall to pieces : but brandy and some dry 
covering revived him. The rescued man was help- 
less, unable to stand, unable to utter an articulate 
sentence. Bennen proposed to carry him down the 
glacier towards home. Had this been attempted, 
the man would certainly have died upon the ice. 
Bennen thought he could carry him for two hours ; 
but the guide underrated his own exhaustion and 
overrated the vitality of the porter. * It cannot be 
thought of,' I said ; ' to the cave of Faulberg, where 
we must tend him as well as we can.' We got him 
to the side of the glacier, where Bennen took him 
on his back ; in ten minutes he sank under his 



144 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

load. It was now my turn, so I took the man on 
my back and plodded on with him ae far as I was 
able. Helping each other thus by turns, we reached 
the mountain grot. 

The sun had set, and the crown of the Jungfrau 
was embedded in amber light. Thinking that the 
Marjelin See might be reached before darkness, I 
proposed starting in search of help. Bennen pro- 
tested against my going alone, and I thought I 
noticed moisture in Lubbock's eye. Such an oc- 
casion brings out a man's feeling if he have any. I 
gave them both my blessing and made for the glacier. 
But my anxiety to get quickly clear of the crevasses 
defeated its own object. Thrice I found myself in 
difficulty, and the light was visibly departing. The 
conviction. deepened that persistence would be folly, 
and the most impressive moment of my existence 
was that on which I stopped at the brink of a 
profound fissure and looked upon the mountains and 
the sky. The serenity was perfect — not a cloud, 
not a breeze, not a sound, while the last hues of sun- 
set spread over the solemn west. 

I returned ; warm wine was given to our patient, 
and all our dry clothes were wrapped around him. 
Hot-water bottles were placed at his feet, and his 
back was briskly rubbed. He continued to groan a 
long time ; but, finally, both this and the trembling 
ceased. Bennen watched , him solemnly, and at 
length muttered in anguish, ' Sir, he is dead !' I 
leaned over the man and found him breathing 
gently ; I felt his pulse — it was beating tranquilly. 
* Not dead, dear old Bennen ; he will be able to 



RESCUE FROM A CREVASSE. 145 

crawl home with us in the morning.' The pre- 
diction was justified by the event ; and two days 
afterwards we saw him at Laax, minus a bit of his 
ear, with a bruise upon his cheek, and a few scars 
upon his hand, but without a broken bone or serious 
injury of any kind. 

The self-denying conduct of the second porter 
made us forget his stupidity — it may have been 
stupefaction. As I lay there wet, through the long 
hours of that dismal night, I almost registered a 
vow never to tread upon a glacier again. But, like 
the forces in the physical world, human emotions 
vary with the distance from their origin, and a year 
afterwards I was again upon the ice. 

John Tyndall, Emirs of Exercise in the Alps. 



IX. 

THE PIC DU MIDI OF THE PYRENEES. 

ASCENT IN 1797 BY E. DE MIEBEL. 

We waited with a sort of impatience for the melt- 
ing of the snows off the slopes of the Pic du Midi 
de Bigorre, in order to attempt a journey to this cele- 
brated mountain. Eamond had approached it in 
the beginning of July, but he had found the road 
impracticable, and had not been beyond the Lake 
of Oncet. From that date to the 22nd, the sun had 
been only hidden at intervals by light clouds. Its 
heat, concentrated in the valleys, had warmed the 
atmosphere ; the frost was gone, and now no obstacle 
stood in our way. 

We formed a party of thirteen or fourteen per- 
sons, and we set out at four o'clock in the morning. 
The greater part of my companions took horses to 
the foot of the Pic, but as for me I went on foot, 
according to my usual custom, carrying on my back 
the tin box in which I meant to put all the rare 
plants which I might find. I was armed with a 
long stick tipped with iron, and shod with nailed 
shoes. 



THE PIC DU MIDI. 147 

We followed the valley of Bareges, along the 
Bastan, and gained the slopes of the Tourmalet. At 
its base, opens towards the north a little lateral 
valley, from which flows a stream, which afterwards 
joins its peaceful waters to those of the impetuous 
Bastan. The valley of Bareges here softens a little 




The Pic du Midi 



the roughness of its frowning slopes, for its soil, 
somewhat less arid, is covered with verdure, and its 
meadows are decked with flowers. The bushy as- 
phodel, with its stem and leaves of brilliant green, 
and its white flowers streaked with rose, grows here 



148 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

abundantly, and raises its head above the more 
modest though not less beautiful flowers. The sax- 
atile veronica, clinging by its ligneous stalk to the 
rocks, whose sharp points crop up here and there in 
the meadow, seems to wish to hide them from the 
traveller. Its pretty deep blue flowers, with their 
two white anthers., enable one to recognize it from 
a distance. We also found here the yellow gentian 
and the Alpine plantain. 

The valley which leads to the Pic ends at the 
Lake of Oncet, where we stopped to breakfast. 
Those who have not climbed mountains cannot- form 
an idea of the pleasure which there is in making the 
most frugal repast beside a limpid stream, after a 
long and weary journey. It seems as if the keen 
air led one back naturally to primitive habits ; and 
truly the amateur mountaineer in visiting a new 
chme seems to gain altogether a new life. 

The borders of the lake are adorned with the 
violet biflorus, whose golden flowers are inter- 
spersed amidst the bright green soil ; here and there 
also we perceive, on the sides of the banks, the yel- 
low arnica bending over the lake ; while the scented 
spurge-laurel showed itself near the precipices, its 
creeping stems covered with pink flowers, and scent- 
ing the air with its perfume. 

On the west of the lake high mountains rose 
perpendicularly from the water ; on the north, the 
rocks were not practicable ; but they were rather 
lower on the east, and allowed us to get glimpses 
of the Pic du Midi. This, then, was the way which 
we must take, and the, ascent was gentle and easy. 



THE PIC DU MIDI. 149 

The sun was already gilding the summit of the 
mountains, and it warned us to be on the march. 
We left one of the guides in charge of our horses, 
and set forward slowly towards the top of the Pic. 
The rarefaction of the air, the appearance of the 
vegetation, the silence of nature, the solitude in 
which we found ourselves, all told us that we were 
approaching high regions. A dry turf, parched and 
shining, covered the rocks, and a few alpine plants 
were visible here and there. Among them we 
noticed the spring gentian, and the stemless gentian, 
those two inseparable companions, which, born in 
the same latitude, are always found in the same 
spot, whether that be the water-side, or the barren 
rock, the grassy lands, or the leafless mountain. 
Sometimes, also, pretty tufts of silenas refreshed the 
eye, and near them the drasa with its grey flax 
flowers spread its delicate foliage and blossoms to 
view. Further on, in the midst of fallen heaps and 
ruins of all sorts, the monuments of the power of 
time, grew in the interstices of the stones some pale 
flowers which seemed to find life even .in the bosom 
of destruction ; and around them fluttered the most 
brilliant butterflies. 

After an hour and a half's march, we arrived at 
the summit of the Pic. The vapors of night were 
dissipated, the sky was clear, and the sun shone 
brightly. The entire chain of the Pyrenees lay 
like an amphitheatre around us. On the right rose 
Neouvielle, a granite rock crowned with eternal 
snow ; on the left, the Breche de Eoland, the tower 
of Marbore, and the Mont Perdu, whose distant 



L50 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

peak towered above all the others. Turning towards 
the opposite side, we discovered an immense plain, 
which seemed at length to lose itself in the horizon. 
The view embraced at once mountains, precipices, 
glaciers, ancient snows, serial lakes, the immense and 
silent workshops of nature, and fruitful fields watered 
by fertilizing streams of the mountain torrents. 
Those peaks, which once seemed to me only a useless 
chaos, and the result of some strange caprice of, 
Nature, now appeared as the sublime work of a be- 
neficent Hand. I gazed intensely on this marvellous 
world of which my imagination could hardly take 
in the extent, and the contemplation of which filled 
my soul with enthusiasm. 

Flowers also still adorned the plateau. The snap- 
dragon of the Pyrenees inserted its slender roots in 
the clefts of the rock, and the light blue of its flow- 
ers only set off the purple of the saxifrage. By its 
side were seen the golden corollas of the Alpine 
poppy. The saxifrage is a rare ornament of moun- 
tains, but here the precipices sheltered it ; and it 
rivalled the snow itself in the purity of its white- 



B. DE MIBBEL. 



THE B BEG HE BE BOLAND. 

ASCENT IN 1797, BY B. DE MIEBEL AND J. PASQUIEB. 

I would not have undertaken such an expedition 
as this had I not found in M. Jules Pasquier a man 
made, as it were, to share its fatigues, and full of 
zeal in the search after the secrets of nature. He 
had admired the beauties of the Pic du Midi ; but 
they had only kindled his ardor and increased his 
longing for further adventures. He knew that 
through snows and glaciers some intrepid men had 
found a way even to the highest point of the Py- 
renean chain ; and that was enough to stimulate his 
ambition and to make him despise the dangers. 

We set out from Bareges on the 8th of August, 
1797, at six o'clock in the morning. Arriving at 
Luz, we took a guide, and continued our route 
towards the valley of Gavarnie. Through this one 
almost trembles as one passes. All is grand, mag- 
nificent, sublime ; and man, surrounded by these 
august monuments, acknowledges his own littleness 
and the might of a sovereign Hand. Such was my 
first thought when I penetrated into this valley ; 



152 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

the second was more pleasing to my amour propre. 
I could not see without admiration or without pride 
that road, constructed on the edge of a frightful 
precipice, which the noise of the Gave renders still 
more terrible. Here, indeed, man has employed at 
once his powers of mind in the conception, his 
strength and address in the working, and his per- 
severance in the execution. The valley ascends 
from north to south. To the east and west rise 
sharp rocks formed of calcareous banks sloping 
almost perpendicularly to the south, and running 
from the east to the west. Often the rock, rising 
from the bottom of the water towards the heavens, 
only presents a wall which seems to defy human 
efforts ; sometimes it is more inclined, and yet more 
difficult to cross, on account of the long slippery 
places formed of schistose debris, of loose stones 
fallen from the peaks, and of loose soil, too, which 
was always ready to roll downwards. Yet here 
they have managed to make a road, which is safe, 
commodious, and wide enough to reassure the most 
timid horseman. One cannot see this road without 
astonishment, now rising with the mountains, then 
falling with its descent ; now avoiding it altogether, 
then joining it again, and even sometimes passing 
from one bank to the other, as an arch over the 
torrent, and thus opening a passage across the rocks 
from the plains of France to those of Spain. If the 
daring character of this great work excites the 
curiosity of the traveller, the variety of its ground, 
and the originality of the whole, do so much 
more. 



THE BRECHE DE ROLAND. 153 

The valley also everywhere presents different 
aspects. The verdant carpet, which adorns the rich 
basin of Luz, is prolonged far on to the mountain. 
Carelessly thrown over gentle slopes, crowned with 
a rich vegetation, and embellished with picturesque 
cottages, it seemed to say, 'This is the Yale of 
Tempe.' But all at once this green turf disappears, 
and to the rounded knolls succeed sharp rocks, while 
vigorous trees give place to trunks torn by tempests 
and nipped by frosts, which bend over the precipice. 
The grove, enclosed between rocks, storms and 
foams, boils and tumbles, while roaring cascades 
precipitate themselves on all sides, and the threat- 
ening rocks hang over the traveller's head. 

When I saw this valley for the first time I 
seemed to proceed from marvel to marvel ; but what 
struck me most, was the view from the bridge of 
Sia. Some time before we reached this, the banks 
of the Gave were clothed in less rude forms ; its 
waters slackened their course ; there they seemed 
almost to drag themselves through thick pastures, 
and under trees, whose branches met at the top and 
hid the river from sight. We had thus gone nearly 
a quarter of a league when a deafening noise was 
heard, and soon, as if by magic, we found ourselves 
on the bridge which, until then, had remained con- 
cealed. It is partly covered with ivy ; its buttresses 
are supported on the rock ; and the Gave rolls its 
waters at more than a hundred feet below the arch. 
On the left, the mountain again resumes its frowning 
aspect ; on the right, on the contrary, it retains its 
graceful form. In the front of the picture you 



154 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

perceive the torrent, which, narrowed by the sides 
of the rocks, rises gradually, swells and falls with 
violence whenever there is a fall in the ground, then 
suddenly becoming calm again, it slowly continues 
its course. 

We soon arrived at Gedres. This village is 
situated at the foot of the Coumelie, a granite rock, 
which is the point of division between the valley of 
Heas and the valley of Gavarnie. 

The nearer we approached to the end of our 
journey, the more imposing did the view become. 
Strange and twisted forms had now given place to 
shapes more grave and regular ; and lively and 
brilliant colors to soft and uniform tints, which 
blended the aerial summits with the azure sky. 

We saw, in passing, the beautiful cascade of 
Saousa, which falls in fine rain into the Gave, and 
which one might take for a light gauze agitated by 
the wind. Further on is the frightful solitude of 
La Peyrade, of which no one could form an idea 
until he has seen it. Picture to yourself a moun- 
tain whose broken peaks have crumbled one o\jr 
the other, accumulating in the bottom of the valley 
in such high lumps of rock, that their size asto- 
nishes the eye and fatigues the imagination. The 
rest of the peak which felt this frightful concussion 
has for ages threatened to bury these immense 
debris under fresh ruins. Enormous blocks were 
first precipitated into the torrent, and thus they 
stop the smaller masses which pile one over the 
other. These blocks are separated by great inter- 




THE BRECHE DE ROLAND 



THE BRECHE DE KOLAND. 155 

stices, of which the engineer has made use in con- 
structing the road. 

It was only two o'clock when we arrived at Ga- 
varnie. We were not tired and therefore continued 
our way towards the valley of Ossau, in order to 
profit by the evening. This valley is divided into 
several branches ; we chose that which leads to the 
lake of the Espessieres. On the banks of this lake 
young horses were grazing : they are sent into the 
mountains during the fine season. Alarmed at our 
approach, they quickly mounted the sides of the 
mountain, and gained with ease the steepest sum- 
mits, where they seemed to defy us to get at them. 
But we managed to allure them into the plain again 
by holding out to them some hanclfuls of salt. 
Whilst we were engaged in stroking them the Mar- 
bore and the Breche de Roland became covered 
with clouds ; a violent clap of thunder resounded 
among the mountains, and the frightened horses 
escaped from our hands. Trembling for the success 
of our enterprise we again took the road to Gavar- 
nie. But soon the sky cleared, the clouds dispersed, 
the setting sun colored the peaks with a bright car- 
nation color, and the rainbow arched the whole with 
its brilliant colors. 

We recommenced our ascent at four o'clock in 
the morning, conducted by an excellent guide 
named Rondo, whom a friend had sent us. To- 
wards five o'clock we began to discover the summits 
of the Marbore, which one might take, at a distance, 
for towers, for their forms are so regular. After 
three quarters of an hour's march we found our- 



156 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

selves in front of the amphitheatre of Gavarnie, 
whose majestic appearance is beyond all description. 
At first sight one might be tempted to think it a 
work of man, on account of the regularity so seldom 
seen in the great works of nature. But the bold- 
ness of the design, the richness of the forms, the 
enormous masses of rock heaped one on the other, 
the grandeur of the architecture, at once simple 
and elegant, and, above all, the abundance and the 
variety of forms in the different parts, soon ad- 
monish the beholder — even while he admires the 
wonderful symmetry of the whole, — of the presence 
of a superior Agent. Immense layers, each retir- 
ing further back as the mountains rise, form steps 
covered with snow, and glaciers from whence fall 
numerous cascades. On the left of the amphi- 
theatre, an impetuous torrent rushes from the 
mountain, strikes in its fall a projection of rock, 
and from thence rebounds into the circus. This 
magnificent cascade, measured geometrically by 
Eeboul, is about 1266 feet high. One might be 
tempted to doubt this fact, if the learned mathema- 
tician who affirms it, did not inspire entire confi- 
dence. Nearly all strangers who visit Gavarnie 
think it an exaggeration to give 300 or 400 feet to 
its cascade ! Most of them, it is true, have never 
travelled among mountains, and do not consider 
how each particular object loses in consequence of 
the imposing grandeur of the whole. This cele- 
brated place offers, perhaps, all that is most aston- 
ishing in the structure of mountains. It presents 
to the naturalist great problems to solve and new 



THE BEECHE DE EOLAND. 157 

systems to establish ; to the painter a sublime whole 
in which are found united grace and vigor in* the 
forms, vivacity and richness in the coloring, and 
harmony and unity in all the parts. 

The sun already gilded the summit of the towers 
of the Marbore, when we took the road to the 
Breche de Eoland. Hondo marched first, leading 
the way. M. Pasquier followed him, and I, some- 
times before, sometimes behind, gathered plants or 
examined the structure of the rock. I had told La- 
gunier, our guide from Luz, not to go far off, in or- 
der that he might come to my aid in case of need. 
We had to climb the rocks in front of the cascades ; 
and we travelled by a road that was frightfully 
steep. Formed by the fall of rounded and move- 
able stones, it lay along the perpendicular rock, 
against which we clung, and by the side of a fright- 
ful precipice. Such was the road which we had to 
follow for half an hour. Another soon presented it- 
self which was more dangerous still. But the intre- 
pid Rondo advanced first. The rock was exactly 
perpendicular ; all parts of our body were placed 
against it ; we placed the points of our feet over the 
little juttings formed by the slipping of the layers, 
and we supported ourselves by clinging with our 
hands to the projections above us. This painful at- 
titude became almost intolerable when Bondo was 
obliged to stop before some new obstacles. Then 
each of us stiffening himself against the rock which 
repulsed him behind, remained suspended on weak 
supports, having under him a precipice of 2000 
fathoms in depth. Happily this situation did not 



158 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUBES. 

last long. We soon arrived at a delicious plateau, 
on which we found a large flock of sheep and goats 
watched by Spanish shepherds. They were taking 
their first meal, and their dog came up to us and 
seemed, by his caresses, to invite us to join them. 
Milk was offered to us which we gratefully ac- 
cepted. 

At some paces from thence we crossed a little 
valley of snow, and soon perceived before us the 
Breche de Eoland, which had long been hidden from 
us by the peaks which came between it and us. But 
we were separated from it by great glaciers, and no 
way of avoiding them presented itself. Lagunier, 
alike frightened by the danger which he had run, 
and by the obstacles which remained to be con- 
quered, declared positively that he would not go a 
step further ; and we felt that we had better not 
urge him, thinking that he would be rather a charge 
than a help. 

We went on into a new snow valley, much larger 
than the first, and of a more exquisite appearance. 
On the north, the Taillon raises its perpendicular 
strata to a prodigious height. On the south, the 
first steps of the wall of the Breche are clearly to be 
seen ; but on the west, the brilliant carpet of snow, 
in its dazzling whiteness, follows softly the sinuosi- 
ties of the rock, falls and rises with it, folds itself in 
a hundred ways, and mounts slowly towards the re- 
gion of eternal ice, where a bluish tint modifies its 
whiteness. Whilst we were admiring the magic 
beauty of these places, a troop of izards, with 
straightened necks, heads raised, noses in the air, 






THE BRECHE DE ROLAND. 159 

and their feet firm and sure, rushed from a neigh- 
boring rock, stopped on the snow, astonished at our 
presence, and all at once, with the rapidity of light- 
ning, cleared the icy plain, and jumped from rock to 
rock, and from peak to peak, appearing and disap- 
pearing before our eyes twenty times in a minute, 
until they stopped at last perfecty quiet on the steep 
crest of the Taillon. 

After having marched for some time in this 
snow valley, we directed our steps towards the gla- 
ciers which were on our left. A Spanish smuggler 
accompanied us. More accustomed than we to this 
sort of march, he cleared, with great rapidity, the 
first belts of the glaciers, and already had ]eft us 
far behind, when, on a sudden, the ice opened under 
his feet, and he sank, uttering a piercing cry. We 
thought him lost, and ran to help him if there were 
yet time. He was wedged between the walls of 
ice, and thus suspended over the gulf, when M. 
Pasquier arrived. We helped him to disengage 
himself and get out, while the dangers into which 
the slightest imprudence might throw us came for- 
cibly to our minds. Rondo was full of care for us. 
He cut the ice with a hatchet, and thus formed 
steps for us, which became every moment more use- 
ful as the ice became harder and harder and resisted 
our iron-pointed sticks. We walked on silently, 
looking carefully at our feet, and casting our eyes 
from time to time over* the gulf into which the 
smallest accident would have precipitated us, and 
over the passage which remained for us to make, 
This painful ascent lasted for nearly a quarter of an 



160 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

hour, during which, in the most perilous parts, we 
could not sometimes prevent a little quaking of fear, 
which, however, we soon repressed. 

We came at last to the end of our journey ; the 
precipices were left far behind, and the dangers 
which we had run were only thought of in contrast 
with our present security, and as they led us to at- 
tach a higher value to the sublime spectacle which 
was presented to our view. An immense wall rises 
between France and Spain ; it is formed, like the. 
Marbore, of perpendicular beds and horizontal lay- 
ers. A breach, cut at right angles, is the door of 
communication for the two countries. Standing on 
the threshold of this magnificent portal, you see on 
the east and on the west the insurmountable barrier 
raised by nature between the two peoples : while, on 
the north and south, you look over the lands sub- 
ject to their respective dominions. 

It was nearly one o'clock when we quitted the 
Breche. We descended the glaciers with great 
precaution, and got out from these dangerous re- 
gions without accident. The same evening, at ten 
o'clock, we were back at Bareges. 

B. de Miebel, Extract from an unpublished narrative. 



XI. 

MONT PERDU. 

ASCENT IN 1797 BY M. EAYMOND. 

We set out from Bareges on the 25th Theriniclor of 
the year V., corresponding to the 11th of August, 
1797, precisely ten years after my journey to the 
Monts Maudits, and twenty years after my first 
journey in the Swiss Alps. I must be pardoned for 
recalling dates of which the memory is so pleasant 
to me ; they have left remembrances of which no 
disagreeable idea breaks the charm. 

Our party was numerous on this occasion. La 
Peyrouse was accompanied by his son, one of his 
pupils, citizen Frizac of Toulouse, and by citizen 
Ferriere, the gardener to the central schools of this 
town. I was accompanied by Mirbel and Pasquier, 
who had just made the ascent of the Breche de 
Roland, and by Corbin and Massey of Tarbes, both 
my pupils, and of whom the latter will often be 
mentioned with praise in the work which I am 
about to publish on the plants of the High Pyre- 
nees. 

Once down in the basin of Luz, we filed along 



162 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

that highroad of naturalists, the Valley of Gevres, 
so justly admired, yet so often described that it is 
almost superfluous to enumerate its singularities. 
Its precipices and cascades, and the difficulty of the 
road which leads through it are well known. Of 
what materials its walls are constructed along which 
one walks, as it were suspended over a precipice, is 
well known also. 

We ascended the Coumelie by a tortuous and 
yet steep pathway, by which the flocks of Gedres 
pass Over the pastures of the middle region. A 
number" of barns are scattered over these rich spots, 
and form three hamlets dependent on Heas, Gedres, 
and Gavarnie. We only found there a small num- 
ber of inhabitants and of flocks, for at this time of 
year they are still in the higher mountain regions. 

We passed the night in a barn, rather disturbed 
by the uncertainty of the weather. However, the 
south wind which had covered the Marbore with 
clouds from Spain, at last yielded to the north wind 
which brought down the clouds from France. The 
former are always high, and cover the peaks ; the 
latter are low, and creep over the bases of the moun- 
tains. By degrees they filled the valleys in which 
,we were, forming an immense sea through which the 
different peaks pierced just about our level. I hoped 
for a fine day. 

The best part of the night was employed in pro- 
viding myself with guides. I had brought from 
Bareges the two men in whom I have most con- 
fidence, my Laurens, who scarcely ever leaves me, 
and Antoine Moure, who supplies his place some- 



MONT PERDU. 163 

times. These are mountaineers of proof ; but in 
the places which we were going to examine, they 
were as much strangers as I was. I had then to 
seek at Heas an isard-hunter, who had been much 
recommended to me for the knowledge of Mont 
Perdu which he possessed, though, as it turned out, 
he knew no more than we did. I added to him two 
inhabitants of the Coumelie, who served me much 
better, though they did not know any more about 
the locality ; and at dawn of day we took the road 
of the Valley of Estaube, keeping over the pastures 
of the Coumelie, which may be traversed as easily 
as a floor. 

We had hardly turned from the east towards the 
south when we were struck with the imposing ap- 
pearance of the valleys of Heas and of Estaube, en- 
circling, as they do, enormous mountains, although 
only the secondary parts of them ; of which the 
equally grand and simple forms contrast singularly 
with the horny ruins and dismembered granites 
which we had left behind us. From hence the sum- 
mit of Mont Perdu is visible. It is very apparent 
and nevertheless not very noticeable to those who 
are not on the look-out for it. It consists of an 
oblique and blunted cone, and glistens with the 
eternal snows which rise above the high walls of the 
valley of Estaube. I pointed it out to my young 
companions, who, seeing it so clearly, thought them- 
selves already nearing the end of their journey. 
Yet it did not take us less than four or five hours 
to reach just the foot of the wall ; and of this wall 



164 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

which we had either to turn or to climb, I took the 
measure with an uneasy eye. 

But we were entering the valley of Estaube, and 
in silence we contemplated its quiet solitudes. It 
possesses, at the same time, the calm of the upper 
regions, and of the secondary grounds. Some moun- 
tains which appeared considerable, even without 
having regard to their elevation, astonished us still 
more by the simplicity of their forms, which is 
noticed usually only on the borders of great chains, 
and in the neighborhood of places where they de- 
generate into mere pillars. The masses, boldly 
modelled, present smooth, yet striking contours, 
which no strange accident has caused to pass the 
limits of the beautiful. All rise and fall in just pro- 
portions. Nothing spoils the harmony of a design 
both severe and bold ; and the color, too, so trans- 
parent and pure, — it is light grey a little warmed 
with pink, — suits equally the light or shade, and 
softens the contrast between them. This color is 
continued up to the very azure of the sky. 

There were very few fallen masses, and especially 
recent ones. Vegetation nourishes up to the very 
foot of the rocky ridges. It has even, here and 
there, taken possession of some old rocks. A little 
river with grassy banks flows peacefully over a 
stony bed, and afterwards, further on, it becomes a 
torrent. There, the service-tree overshadows Solo- 
mon's seal, which is rare in our mountains, though it 
here acquires uncommon dimensions. Over the de- 
clivities of the lateral mountains may be seen the 
red pine which here defies the axe. All the blocks 




MONT PERDU. 



MONT PERDU. 165 

are adorned with the light plumy bunches of the 
superb long-leaved saxifrage. In uncultivated 
ground there is sometimes found the carline of the 
Pyrenees, and sometimes the beautiful panicaut 
described by Gouin, and which here changes some- 
times trom amethyst to crimson. On the turf 
there are those two carlines particularly mentioned 
by Allioni and Yillars, the second of which, de- 
scribed under the name of acanthus-leaved carline, 
may be known by the golden color of its calyx 
crown. 

There can be nothing more brilliant or more 
sjDlendid than a piece of turf bedizened with those 
two carlines. 

We pressed on, and at length we all sat down be- 
fore these mountain walls of Estaube, which seemed 
to rise higher as we advanced towards them. Al- 
ready we could see that fine glaciers lay under the 
fields of snow which in some parts diversified the 
landscape. At last, after four hours' march we 
found ourselves just under the intermediate glacier ; 
and we stopped to gaze on those walls which seemed 
to tower up to the very skies. The place in which 
we were is the highest to which shepherds go. The 
name of couilas is given to their temporary encamp- 
ments ; and this one was called the coidla of the 
Abassat-dessus. We here met two Spanish shep- 
herds belonging to that set of them who rent the 
highest pastures of the Pyrenees for their travelling 
flocks. These two men were stretched by the side 
of a hut, made of dry stones, just large enough to 
contain them sitting or lying. That was all the 



166 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

shelter that these two nornades, or rather half-sava- 
ges, who inhabit this region only for some days in 
the fine season needed. Sometimes they dispensed 
with a hut of any kind, and made shift with the 
shelter of some overhanging rock. 

To have met two men of this sort, two real 
habitues of the environs of Mont Perdu, appeared 
a most fortunate adventure in our ascent up the 
mountain, and we were all eager to ask them ques- 
tions. But the shepherds had only passed a few 
days in this region of eternal snow ; and their re- 
plies were only half satisfying me, when a smuggler 
of their nation came up and joined them. This lat- 
ter was quite an authority. Forced to avoid the 
beaten roads, and to trust to the chances of the 
most dangerous paths, we felt that he must know 
Mont Perdu almost better than any one ; and, as it 
proved, his advice differed greatly from that of the 
shepherds. Whilst he and they were discussing 
the question of the route we took a little repose, 
and I, according to my custom, formed my plan. 

The unanimous result of their consultation was, 
that we must pass the ' Port de Pinede,' descend 
into the valley of Beousse, and remount on the right 
by some very steep rocks which they said were 
always practicable. But to ascend again for two 
hours just to have to descend one, — then to climb 
rocks which must occupy us for four or five more. — 
this plan would just bring us up to Mont Perdu 
when it would be time to leave it again. I had 
been considering the glacier below which we stood. 
It was still covered with snow ; and this snow must, 



MONT PERDU. 167 

I imagined, make it practicable ; the inclination was 
great, but not an insuperable difficulty ; and the 
glacier led to a breach which seemed to open right 
on the face of Mont Perdu. So I declared that I 
was resolved to try the chances. This the shepherds 
thought outrageous, for though they allowed that 
these snows are sometimes practicable, yet they did 
not believe them to be so when grey spots showed 
the surface of the glacier to be visible through them. 
At first the smuggler alone applauded me, though 
my faithful Laurens afterwards took my side. The 
others smiled, and our local guides were just the 
most incredulous and the least courageous. It was 
necessary, however, to put an end to this state of 
indecision ; so I declared that I should ascend the 
glacier with whoever would follow me; and as 
obstinacy nevei fails to decide irresolution they 
all came. As to the smuggler, he had already fol- 
lowed his own plans ; and very soon we lost sight 
of him. 

We went directly towards the mouth of the 
glacier by slopes that were steep enough, certainly ; 
yet they were grassy, and seemed to have only lately 
emerged from the snow which covers them for seven 
or eight months of the year. The fresh green was 
in its spring, and the ground covered with Alpine 
flora. 

However, we approached the steep sides of the 
mountain, and then what had seemed the smallest 
objects acquired enormous dimensions. At last we 
reached the debris which comes down from the 
mountain, and which forms the moraine of the gla- 



168 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

cier. We were obliged to step on to the snow and 
face the threatening couloir at the top of which we 
expected to find Mont Perdu. At first this was a 
mere game ; the snow had a good consistency and a 
moderate inclination ; and we went on with all the 
confidence which experience of mountains gives. 
But we had not gone fifty steps when the inclination 
increased ; and we could see that it continued to do 
so. We looked above our heads, and still the ground 
became steeper. Our pace slackened ; we stopped 
and consulted what was to be done. I saw that La 
Peyrouse remained behind, and got him to try the 
cramping irons which I used, and which my pupils 
had adopted after my example ; they were those 
which De Saussure had used in his most perilous 
journeys. But the help was as strange to him as 
the place which obliged him to have recourse to 
them. Nothing, at his age, could give him the re- 
quisite mountaineering habits. So I conjured him 
not to load me with the responsibility of his safety ; 
he consented to leave us, and thus we parted at the 
moment on which I had most reckoned on the assist- 
ance of his learning. 

I left him then at the bottom of the glacier with 
my brave Antoine, whom I had attached to his ser- 
vice ; and they seated themselves on a rock from 
whence they could see us slowly continuing our way. 
We had not proceeded a quarter of an hour when 
the snow became so hard that our footsteps made no 
impression on it. So we had to think carefully of 
our footing and to help ourselves with our hatchets. 
Then we settled ourselves into a file and took care 



MONT PERDU. 169 

to plant our feet in the steps cut by the three first 
of the column, a work in which the gardener, Fer- 
riere, distinguished himself, his heartiness contrast- 
ing strangely with the sang-froid of our other moun- 
taineers. During the first hour all went well. We 
carefully avoided the uncovered part of the glaciers, 
and by means of numerous zigzags, prudently man- 
aged, we were avoiding the difficulty of a slope 
which varied from thirty-five to forty degrees, when 
all at once we perceived a man distractedly clinging 
to a rock from whence he called to us for aid ! It 
was our smuggler, and a long track in the snow told 
his story. The unfortunate man had ventured with- 
out cramping irons, without a hatchet, without any 
of the means of safety which men of his trade never 
fail to carry ; and he had slipped down more than 
two hundred paces, from being too near the edge of 
the rock. And, once launched, it was inconceivable 
how he had ever succeeded in stopping himself. We 
should have liked to fly to his assistance, but could 
only move slowly. However, we succeeded in res- 
cuing him at last, and then we placed him in our 
ranks. He had lost his hat, his waistcoat, his pack 
of merchandise, and he had had a greater loss still ; 
for he had lost his stick which had preceded him 
down the precipice, and which we could not restore 
to him. The other things were scattered about, and 
we soon recovered the waistcoat and the goods. 
But the hat had stuck in a dangerous place ; it cost 
us a quarter of an hour's labor, although it was 
within twenty steps. 

It was in vain, however, that we had put the poor 



170 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

fellow in the very middle of our party ; lie could not 
recover his composure. Our assurance acted less on 
him than his uneasiness did on my companions. I 
saw already on the faces of two of them signs of fear 
of which I dreaded the consequences. At every step 
they asked me to measure the inclination of the gla- 
cier, which was as much as sixty degrees. It was 
now, therefore, a question whether we should change 
our route, and try the rocks at the side of the ice. 
This was not, in my opinion, desirable ; but the 
general uneasiness increased. Twice we waited 
while our two guides from the Coumelie attempted 
the escalade. Each time they were constrained to 
come down again. It was necessary to return to 
the snow, where, by means of our old manoeuvre, 
there was really nothing to fear except the dis- 
couragement of the party. The glacier was here at 
its greatest inclination, and we were also at our last 
effort. Above, the slope became visibly more gen- 
tle, and the ice was hidden under snows of a white- 
ness so pure as to indicate the summit of the ridge, 
standing out against the deep blue of the sky. The 
only question now was, how to triumph over an ob- 
stacle beyond which our imaginations showed us 
the top of Mont Perdu. We gathered up all our 
remaining strength. We mutually animated and 
encouraged one another. At each step that we took, 
we saw the distance lessening. The breach which 
had long been hidden from us by the edge of the 
glacier, reappeared in gigantic proportions, and 
already we felt the cold wind which rushed through 
the great opening. We hastened on ; we pushed 



MONT PERDU. 171 

forward, and, out of breath, we reached the desired 
point. An exclamation of delight was uttered by 
all ; but a deep silence succeeded at the sight of a 
new world, of the depths which separated us from 
it, of the glaciers which girded it round, of the 
clouds which covered it ; a frightful and yet sublime 
spectacle, by which our senses seemed overpowered. 
A single instant had sufficed to develop it in all 
its majesty ; but for several moments we could not 
collect our senses. ' There is Mont Perdu ! There 
is Mont Perdu !' said one to another, and still no 
one could single it out from the chaos of rocks, 
snows, and vapors. 

And it was not without reason that we saw Mont 
Perdu everywhere ; everything here belongs to it, 
everything is a part of it, even the ridge which we 
had reached, and which was only separated from 
the highest point by a depression or erosion of a 
part of its sides. This peak was before us, a little 
to the left, white shaded with grey, and apparently 
retreating in the midst of a thick cloud of haze 
which moved slowly round it. On the right stood 
out the Cylindre, more sombre than this cloud, more 
menacing than Mont Perdu itself, set up on its 
enormous pedestal about the level of which we 
stood, and so near us, that it appeared as if we could 
touch it with our hands. It signified nothing that I 
had seen it a hundred times at a distance; it ap- 
peared to me more fantastic than ever. Always in- 
visible from the intermediate stations, it had sud- 
denly grown into a colossus which was magnified in 
my eyes by the remembrance of its first appearance. 



172 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

This figure of a truncated tower which recalls the 
idea of known dimensions, contrasting with propor- 
tions to which nothing is comparable, its situation, 
color, proximity, the vapor in which it was enveloped, 
all concurred to make this enormous rock the most 
extraordinary object in the picture. It was to this 
that all eyes constantly returned. It was this that 
the guides persisted in calling ' Mont Perdu.' 

But what was still more unexpected, if possible, 
than these strange sights, what no former view had 
prepared us for, what we could only look on from 
the height of the observatory on which we were 
placed, was the indescribable appearance of the ma- 
jestic support of these two summits. Cut out by the 
same scissors which have fashioned the flights of the 
Marbore, it presents a succession of steps sometimes 
draped in snow, sometimes covered with glaciers 
which at times overflow and pour themselves one 
over the other in large and motionless cascades, even 
to the borders of a lake of which the surface, still 
frozen, but freed from the snows, shone with a quiet 
brightness which heightened the dazzling whiteness 
of its banks. 

This lake, the desolate area in which it reposed, 
the mass of ice which bounded it on the south, the 
black walls which surmount it, the Cylindre and 
Mont Perdu towering up into a stormy sky, and that 
rocky, naked, and rugged enclosure, from one of the 
battlements of which we were contemplating the 
most imposing and frightful scene in the Pyrenees ; 
all and everything defied comparison ; nothing at 
first presented itself by comparison with the known 



MONT PEEDU. 173 

dimensions of which we could estimate the size of 
the whole ; and we should have been reduced to a 
vague notion of heights and distances if accident 
had not furnished us with a determinate object in a 
troup of izards which wandered over the ice of the 
lake and drank in the crevasses. At the first cry 
they fled over the rocks, leaving us alone in these 
vast deserts, the extent of which they had enabled 
us to measure. 

It was time to settle what we should do in order 
to visit the attainable points. I had not been slow 
to perceive that the way to the peaks was closed to 
us by the chaotic state of its glacier, and the steep- 
ness of its sides. Even the izards had avoided them 
in their flight, although that would have been the 
shortest way to escape from our view ; and they had 
gone the whole length of the lake in order to take 
refuge in the more accessible heights which separate 
the Cylinclre from the region of the Marbore. But 
we might descend into the basin. The slope, though 
rapid, was absolutely free from danger ; and once 
on the level of the lake and its icy surface opened 
communications with several parts, and nothing hin- 
dered us from following the paths taken by the 
izards up to the western ridge of the Cylindre, and 
over the last steps of Mont Perdu. 

But we had to think of returning ; it was midday, 
and the state of the sky indicated an approaching 
change in the weather. If we spent the rest of the 
day here, we should have no longer a choice of the 
way to retreat, and our only resource would be to 
go back by the same way that we had come. But 



174 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

those of my companions who had trembled at the 
perils of the ascent, could not without imprudence 
be exposed to the more real danger of that descent. 
In default of convenient roads we must at least 
choose dangers not so well known to them. I re- 
membered the declivity of the valley of Beousse, 
which the Spanish shepherds regard as the natural 
road from the lake. According to them, this way 
communicated with the back of the Port de Pinede. 
It was a long detour, certainly, and if we took it we 
must give up, from that time, any new enterprise ; 
but, on the other hand, the smuggler assured me 
that these rocks were very practicable, and that he 
was going part of the way himself to get to the 
valley of Faulo. I could then recross the lake the 
next day, and possibly conduct La Peyrouse into 
these extraordinary places where I had already re- 
gretted his absence so many times. So I quickly 
decided to inform him of my movements. I wrote 
to him to pass the Port de Pinede directly, and to 
wait for us at the bottom of the valley of Beousse 
in a ruined house which I described to him from the 
smuggler's description of it. I told him of my de- 
sign of returning next day, and of my hope that he 
might be able to go with me. I gave the note to 
one of the guides from Coumelie, who decided to 
carry it over the valley of snow at the bottom of 
which he must still be. The departure of my courier 
was not the least affecting episode of the journey. 
We had to watch him clambering through the snow, 
helping himself with his hands, and going with the 
greatest care, that he might not miss the track of 



MONT PERDU. 175 

our steps. All these delaying obstacles which he 
encountered were bad auguries for the success of his 
embassy ; and the event justified the foreboding : it 
was again in vain that I had hoped to conduct La 
Peyrouse to Mont Perdu. 

However, I gave a last look at the rocks of the 
beach, and my companions, whose predilection was 
for plants, drew my attention to the few specimens 
of vegetation which managed to resist even the bitter 
winter of a region of 9000 feet at least above the level 
of the sea. The northern exposure only offered us 
one plant ; but it was the glacial ranunculus, which is 
so rare in the Pyrenees that I had only found two spe- 
cimens at the top of Neouville, and of them I had 
been obliged to send one to La Peyrouse, in order to 
persuade him that it was there. In this place it was 
abundant and superb, but suspended to rocks which 
were exceedingly steep, and which were themselves 
suspended over such a formidable precipice, that in 
order to get some, all our zeal for science was called 
forth. Mirbel and Pasquier first seized some, and 
their example encouraged the others. No one had 
made such a bold step before ; and none had been 
made so heartily. From the bosom of the lake rose 
a chain of rocks, which formed a long promontory. 
The shapes of this chain indicate a perfect simili- 
tude between its structure and that of the bases 
of the Cylindre : this, therefore, offered to me an 
object of comparison which must take away all my 
doubts. 

I descended quickly. The lake was covered with 
a thick ice, the crevasses of which it was easy to 



176 MOUNTAIN ADYENTUEES. 

jump ; and I soon gained the promontory. I found 
the rock divided into horizontal layers, like the steps 
of the Marbore, the walls of the Breche de Roland, 
and the Cylindre and its platform. But then these 
layers ? Were they only on the external edges, or 
strata running through? The first stroke of the 
hammer answered the question : they were only ex- 
ternal, and the strata were vertical. I was going to 
strike a second time into the body of the rock when 
I perceived on its surface a reddish projection. I 
looked nearer, and recognized a piece of a polypary. 
I' looked again, and I saw the upper valve of an 
oyster; then some fragments of a madrepore, 
then of other broken zoophytes, of which I could 

not determine the species I cried out, 

called my companions, and assembled them on 
the rocks, which were all clammy with the remains 
of various organisms. And I showed them these 
venerable remains, which on the sides of Mont 
Perdu had a very peculiar importance. They spread 
themselves over the promontory, and eagerly tore 
up everything which could be distinguished from 
the substance of the stone ; and working myself 
with a new ardor in the midst of these ardent work- 
ers, I enjoyed a pleasure which no one could share 
with me — that of having opened so fine a field of 
observation to future travellers, who perhaps will 
find there some day what the actual state of our 
scientific knowledge did not permit us to see. 

It was a pleasant thing to see the pupils of two 
rising schools in possession of a field of which the 
learned would envy us the discovery ; and I could 



MONT PERDU. 177 

not unmoved see these young men gaming from 
this first success a passion for research and a thirst 
for learning. They themselves felt the influence of 
the place, and gave themselves up to transports 
which almost amounted to delirium. 

1 Let us stay here,' they said : ' to-morrow per- 
haps we shall accomplish the ascent to the peak.' 

< But the cold of the night ?' 

' What is a night with such a hope before us ?' 

' But what about food ?' 

* Oh, they would do without that ;' fatigues, fears, 
dangers — all were forgotten : prudence and fore- 
sight were at a discount. The ice was no longer 
terrible ; the thick clouds which encircled the sum- 
mit were no longer threatening, when all at once 
there was heard from these very clouds a fearful 
peal, which echoed and thus multiplied itself many 
times among the rocks. The most determined 
turned pale ; they thought that they could already 
see the storm breaking over these frightful solitudes, 
and that it would shut us in : it was, nevertheless, 
nothing but a fall of snow from the upper steps of 
the mountain ; but the impression was made, and 
now they only thought of getting away. 

Hardly had we passed the lake when we found 
ourselves on the edge of a precipice, of which no 
other would give any idea. It seemed as if the 
earth had altogether on a sudden escaped from 
beneath our feet. On whatever side we turned there 
seemed nothing but a precipitous declivity and steep 
walls. On the left the mountains of Estaube, on the 
right Mont Perdu, plunging into an immense pro- 



178 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

fundity, and forming two long parallel chains, which 
were made of the same rock, cut out by the same 
model, and which enclosed between these enormous 
boulevards the valley of Beousse, over which we 
stood, as from some height on the airy regions, and 
which gradually disappeared from view. 

Truly this valley was ravishing, lying in the 
midst of the rocks, which serve as battlements to it, 
and of the snows which fertilize it. Bich in the 
luxury of nature, and lovely in its wild beauty, it is 
just the earth in the first days of its birth, and before 
man had subjected it to cultivation. I sought in 
vain for any traces of the region being frequented: 
but neither stronghold, nor road, nor pathway, nor 
inn could be seen ; travellers avoid this wild region, 
which they either cannot or dare not face, and which 
whoever approaches may easily think himself the 
first who has done so. Those meadows without 
flocks, those shades which have never been planted, 
those virgin forests, those box-hedges which have 
never been clipped, and that torrent which rises in 
Mont Perdu, the Cinca, so proud of its origin, so 
impetuous, so ungovernable, coursing along in a 
cutting full of ruins — all these things must be seen 
to be imagined. The eye follows this river in its 
course, and wanders with it in the desert, where it 
travels without obstacle and without witness. It 
seems to flee, and you follow it still ; the eye seeks 
on the edge of the horizon the last rippling of its 
waves. The ear catches eagerly the last murmur 
which the wind brings back. It escapes all the 
senses at last in the deep valleys where it runs ; and 



MONT PERDU. 179 

then the imagination still pursues it to the distant 
banks where the Ebro receives those waters of which 
we here saw the secret springs. But, after all, what 
is the great hidden charm of these deserts ? What 
involuntary, deep, and imperious feeling holds me in 
these places where my fellows have not established 
their empire ? What irresistible inclination cease- 
lessly draws back my thoughts and my steps, 
and holds and amuses my fancy in the vain desire 
there to build my cottage and bring up sny family ? 
What is civilization if it still leave in our hearts an 
imperishable regret for our old independence ? What 
is society if man, whom she has fashioned to her 
will, and attached to her by habit and necessity, 
cannot escape an instant from the crowd which con- 
strains him without shedding a tear at the thought 
of the necessity which plunges him back into it ? 

Bamond, Voyages au Mont Perdu. 



xn. 

NORTH GAPE. 

VOYAGE OF JOSEPH ACERBI, IN 1798. 

We set out for Alten on Monday, the 15th of July, 
at two o'clock in the afternoon, and we did not 
arrive at the Cape till the night between the Friday 
and Saturday following. Three miles from Alten 
we passed on our right a mountain, called in Nor- 
wegian Himellar, or Heaven-man, from which there 
fell into the sea five or six cascades, two or three 
hundred yards of perpendicular height. Further 
onward was another grand cataract, where we 
quenched our thirst. We went up into the moun- 
tains to see the place where it had its source, and 
were surprised to find at their summit very beautiful 
natural meadows. Still further off we again saw a 
fine cascade running down from another mountain. 
All these waterfalls were supplied, no doubt, by the 
melting of the snow on the distant mountains, which 
formed, as it were, the back-ground of the picture. 
The cascade last mentioned was precipated from a 
hill, adorned on three sides with a wood of birch, 
spread in the manner of an amphitheatre, so that it 



NORTH CAPE. 181 

appeared as if it had been planted by the hand of 
man. In the midst of this pleasure-ground stood a 
wooden house, covered with turf, and inhabited by 
a family of fixed Laplanders. I wished to pay them 
a visit. One of our guides, however, besought me 
not to go there immediately by myself, but to send 
him on before me, because, said he, the family will 
perhaps be frightened at the sight of a stranger of so 
different an appearance to then own. He went into 
the house, but found nobody there ; it was com- 
pletely deserted ; the family had either gone on a 
fishing excursion, or were in the mountains tending 
their reindeer. . . . We returned with regret to our 
boats, and it was not without pain that we bade 
adieu to so charming a prospect, which bore a strik- 
ing resemblance to all that is most romantic and 
beautiful in the natural scenery of Switzerland. 

There was not a breath of wind, and our boat- 
men were much fatigued with rowing in so great a 
heat. In order to give them some respite, and to 
gratify our own curiosity, we visited all the Laplan- 
ders settled on this coast, who generally lived at the 
distance of a Norwegian mile, or a mile and a half 
from one another. Abundance and contentment 
reign in all their dwellings. Each Laplander is the 
proprietor of the territory around his little mansion, 
to the extent of a Norwegian mile, or eight English, 
in every direction. They have some cows, which 
furnish them excellent milk, and meadow-land, which 
yields hay for their fodder in winter. They have 
every one a store of fish, dried in the sun, not only 
for their own use, but wherewithal to purchase lux- 



182 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

uries — that is, salt, oatroeal, and some woolen 
clothes. Their houses are constructed in the form 
of tents — a hole in the middle, which gives them 
light, serves also as an aperture for letting out the 
smoke of the fire, which is always placed in the cen- 
tre of the cabin, and around which they sleep quite 
close to one another. In winter, besides the heat 
of the fire, they have the benefit of the animal 
warmth of the cows, with whom they share the shel- 
ter of their roof, as the inhabitants of Scotland do in 
the Highlands and the northern isles. The doors of 
their houses in summer are always open, and al- 
though in that season there is no night, they are ac- 
customed to sleep at the same time as other Euro- 
peans. . . . They not only sleep with their doors wide 
open, but so soundly that it is not easy to rouse them. 
The fact is, that they are not to be exposed to any 
kind of danger or disturbance. They are far re- 
moved from the anxieties of fear that attend envied 
possession ; and the only wild beasts that could 
possibly give them any alarm or uneasiness are the 
wolves and bears. But these animals never attack 
houses, as they procure sufficient nourishment by 
following the wandering Laplanders with their rein- 
deer. . . . 

In one of the families we visited we witnessed a 
very tender and affecting scene, which convinced us 
that sensibility is not banished from those northern 
latitudes. At three o'clock after midnight we en- 
tered a cabin, in which there were, besides the mas- 
ter of the house, his mother, his young wife, and 
two infant children. They were fast asleep, and we 



NORTH CAPE. 183 

waited for some time that we might awake them 
gently : they all of them lay on the ground, which 
they had covered with the branches and leaves of 
the fragrant and aromatic birch ; over these were 
spread some reindeer skins. They slept, as the 
maritime Laplanders do in general, with their clothes 
on ; but these, being very large and loose, occasion 
no inconvenience by impeding in any degree the 




Island of Lofoden, North Cape. 

circulation of the blood. The wife awoke first, and 
casting her eyes on one of our boatmen, whom she 
knew, she was glad to see him, and entered into 
conversation with him in Lapponese. The husband 
and his aged mother also awoke soon after, but the 
children continued in their sound sleep. The old 
woman perceiving our Laplander, burst into a flood 
of tears ; the young woman likewise wept, so did 



184 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

the boatman ; and so by instinctive sympathy did 
we all, without knowing why. For a moment we 
preserved a dead silence, when our interpreter hav- 
ing entered the cabin, and found us in tears, asked 
in Finnish the reason of all this sorrow. The occa- 
sion was this : the old woman had seen the boatman 
about a year before, when she was in perfect health, 
but since that time she had been seized by a fit of 
apoplexy, which had totally deprived her of the use 
of speech. After this general emotion had subsided, 
we asked for some reindeer milk and cheese. Our 
landlady immediately went out of the cabin and con- 
ducted us to the store, which was a little wooden 
box or shed raised upon beams to a certain height 
from the ground, that the provisions it contained 
might not be damaged by the snow of winter. We 
w r ere astonished at the quantity of things this good 
and provident woman had in her magazine. There 
was great plenty of dried fish and dried reindeer 
flesh, cheese, and tongues of the reindeer, oatmeal, 
reindeer skins, fur and woolen clothes, and other 
articles. Everything bespoke riches and comfort; 
and what was most remarkable, our kind hostess 
gave us whatever we wanted in the most liberal 
manner, and without the least idea of receiving 
aught in return ; on the contrary, she persisted in 
refusing to accept any money when we offered it. 
I have seen few places where the people live in so 
easy and happy a simplicity as in the maritime dis- 
tricts of Lapland. . . . 

We left this cabin to pursue our voyage, but after 
proceeding five or six English miles, we were obliged 



NORTH CAPE. 185 

by the wind again to land We travelled seven or 

eight English miles on foot, and found here and 
there among those mountains delicious spots and 
valleys, enclosed by hills that were covered with 
birch and some other trees. We came at last to a 
mountain Laplander's tent, and our curiosity was 
satisfied : this tent was of a conical form, and not 
shaped as tents are in general. In the middle was 
the fire, and around the fire sat the Laplander's wife, 
a boy, who was his son, and some inhospitable and 
surly dogs, which never ceased barking at us all the 
time we remained near them. Fast by the tent was 
erected a shed, consisting of five or six sticks or 
posts that were fastened to one another near the 
top, in the same manner as the tent, and covered 
with skins and pieces of cloth : under this canopy 
the Laplanders kept their provisions, which were 
cheese of the reindeer, a small quantity of milk of 
the same, and dried fish. 

A little further on was a rude enclosure or part- 
ing, made in haste, which served as a fold or yard for 
the reindeer when they were brought together to be 
milked. Those animals were not near the tents at 
the time of our visit ; they were in the mountains, 
from whence they would not descend till towards 
night. As we did not feel ourselves disposed to 
ramble about in quest of them, at the hazard of 
losing ourselves among a series of mountains, we 
judged it more advisable to offer some brandy to the 
Laplanders, on condition that they would go with 
their dogs and bring the reindeer home, or as near 
as they could to the tent. Scarcely had they swal- 



186 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

lowed the brandy which we had given them as an 
earnest of more., when we heard the shrill barking 
of the dogs resounding through the mountains. The 
Laplanders then told us that the reindeer were 
coming, and very soon after we beheld a troop of not 
less than three hundred deer descending from the 
mountains in a direction towards the tent. We then 
insisted that they should drive the reindeer within 
the enclosure near the tent, that we might have an 
opportunity of seeing and examining them better, 
and tasting the milk fresh from the does. They did 
as we desired, but not without very great difficulty, 
because the animals, not being accustomed to be 
shut up in the fold at that hour of the day, were 
unwilling to be confined ; and it was not till after 
repeated efforts that the Laplanders were able at 
last, with the assistance of the dogs, to compel them 
to enter. We then had time to view them at our 
leisure. These poor animals were lean, and of a 
sad and melancholy appearance : their hair hung 
down, and their excessive panting indicated how 
much they suffered at this season from heat ; 
their skins were pierced here and there, and ul- 
cerated by the mosquitoes, and the eggs of the fly, 
called in Lapponese henna, which tormented them in 
the most cruel manner. I made a collection of 
those insects and their eggs, intending them as 
presents for my entomological friends. As to the 
milk which we tasted, it is not so good at this time 
as in winter. In summer it has always a kind of 
strong or wild taste, and too much of what the 
French call haut gout. 



NOKTH CAPE. 187 

Our guides advised us to return to the boats, and 
avail ourselves of the favorable breeze that had 
sprung up for pursuing our voyage, and we took 
leave of our Laplanders, whose only regret at our 
departure seemed to be mortification at the re- 
moval of the brandy. We passed in our boat the 
Whaal-Sund, or Sound of Whales, which was 
agitated at the same time by the current that sets in 
here very strong, and by the wind, which blew con- 
trary to the current. Whales resort to this strait in 
great numbers, and are, as we were told, very common 
in all these seas. Although we were assured by our 
mariners that they never passed this strait without 
seeing eight or ten whales, we were so unfortunate as 
not to get a sight of one. We went on shore to the 
house of a merchant, situated on an island near 
Havesund ; this was perhaps the most dismal habi- 
tation on the face of the earth. The whole land 
around it did not produce one tree or shrub ; no, not 
so much as a blade of grass ; there was nothing to 
be seen but naked rocks. The inhabitant of that 
house had not anything but what he brought from a 
distance, not even fuel. The sun for three months of 
the year is not visible ; and if during that space of 
time the atmosphere were not illuminated by the 
aurora borealis, he would be buried in profound 
darkness. Dreadful place to live at ! The only at- 
traction in these abodes is fishing, and the love of 
gain. The nearer one approaches to the North Cape 
the more nature seems to frown : vegetation dies, 
and leaves behind it nothing but naked rocks. 

Proceeding on our voyage, we left on our right 



188 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

the strait formed by Mageroe, or Bare Island, of the 
continent. The vast expanse of the Frozen Ocean 
opened to our left, and we arrived at last at the 
extremest point of Europe, known by the name of 
the North Cape, exactly at midnight. 

The North Cape is an enormous rock, which pro- 
jecting far into the ocean, and being exposed to all 
the fury of the waves and the outrage of tempests, 
crumbles every year more and more into ruins. 
Here everything is solitary, everything is sterile, 
everything sad and despondent. The shadowy forest 
no longer adorns the brow of the mountain ; the 
singing of the birds, which enlivened even the woods 
of Lapland, is no longer heard in this scene of deso- 
lation ; the ruggedness of the dark grey rock is not 
covered by a single shrub ; the only music is the 
hoarse murmuring of the waves, ever and anon re- 
newing the assaults on the huge masses that oppose 
them. The northern sun, creeping at midnight at 
the distance of five diameters along the horizon, and 
the immeasurable ocean in apparent contact with the 
skies, form the grand outlines in the sublime picture 
presented to the astonished spectator. The inces- 
sant cares and pursuits of anxious mortals are re- 
collected as a dream ; the various forms and ener- 
gies of animated nature are forgotten ; the earth is 
contemplated only in its elements, and as constitut- 
ing a part of the solar system. 

Jacob Acekbi, Travels through Sweden, Finland, and Lapland, 
to the Horth Cape, in the years 1798 and 1799. 






xm. 

THE BBOCKEN. 

The Brocken is the name of the principal mountain 
of the picturesque chain of the Hartz mountains, in 
the kingdom of Hanover. From its summit, raised 
about 10,500 feet above the level of the sea, may be 
seen a plain of 70 leagues in extent, occupying 
nearly the twentieth part of Europe, and having* a 
population of more than 5,000,000 of inhabitants. 

From the most remote historical epochs, the 
Brocken has been the theatre of the marvellous. 
On the top of it there may still be seen blocks of 
granite, called the Seat and the'' Altar of the Sorceress ; 
a spring of limpid water is named the Magic Foun- 
tain ; and the common name of the anemone which 
grows on this mountain is the flower of the fairies. 
We may presume that these names owe their origin 
to the worship of the great idol which the Saxons 
secretly worshipped on the summit of the Brocken, 
when Christianity was already dominant in the 
plain. And as the place in which this worship was 
celebrated must have been much frequented, no 
doubt this spectre which so often haunts it at the 



190 



MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 



rising of the sun was taken notice of in these long 
past times. So tradition says that this spectre had 
its share in the tribute paid bj the superstitious. 

If all who constantly live in sight of the Brocken 
desire to ascend it at least once in their lives ; — if 
all other Germans, who, though it lies out of their 




Brocken. 



horizon, have often heard of it and aspire also to 
enjoy the spectacle in question, which, living as they 
do in the plains, their imagination is unable to re- 
present to them by any analogous image, it is easy 
to conceive what an influence this mountain has 
in the fine season. Still it has only been since the 



THE BROCKEN. 191 

beginning of this century that the fashion of visiting 
the Brocken has become an established one. It 
appears that all the exaggerations of the eighteenth 
century were necessary to interest men in its beau- 
ties. Before that there were few, besides the wood- 
cutters, who were eager enough about it to attempt 
a difficult ascent. Towards the end of the last 
century, the number of the curious increasing, the 
Count of Yernigerode, whose principality lies under 
the sides of the mountain, and embraces the moun- 
tain itself, taking pity on those who suffered from 
tempests on these heights, and sympathizing with 
those who wished to pass the night there, in order 
to witness the rising and setting of the sun, — caused 
a hotel to be constructed on the top. It was finished 
on the 10 th of September, 1800. One of the servants 
of the Count's household, an excellent man, who will 
be remembered by all who visited the Brocken during 
his lifetime, was installed as innkeeper, at the 
height of 3500 feet, under the strange condition 
that he should always live there, even during the 
winter, — no doubt in order that it might be said 
that the goodness of the Count never fails in any 
weather. So this brave man allowed himself to be 
buried in the snow all the year round with his wife 
and daughter ; for it often accumulates even to the 
top of the roof ; and they could only breathe and 
see the sky through a little tower in the middle of 
the house. Thus he passed thirty-three years in 
perfect serenity. And from this elevation he could, 
in one sense, command all Germany. I must be 
permitted this remembrance of a simple-minded, 



192 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

honest soul. The contrast between his patriarchal 
hospitality and the often stormy majesty of the 
mountain, is striking, and, at the same time, resting 
and pleasant. When I ascended the Brocken for 
the first time as a young man, I reached the top at 
eleven o'clock at night, having lost my way, and 
being pierced through and through with the cold ; 
but some dogs, in answer to my call, signalized my 
approach, and the good Gerlach came running to 
meet me with a lantern and some brandy. Next 
morning, when I left, he would descend with me as 
far as the forests, and his eyes were full of tears. I 
was, no doubt, the last visitor whom he would see 
that year ; for the snow already threatened to entomb 
them. This year I did not find him there ; and I 
could not help mourning for him, for his name is 
attached to the history of the mountain. 

The Brocken is now a sort of necessity to the 
people of Lower Germany. They love to contem- 
plate from its summit that fatherland which seems 
so parcelled out and divided to those who do not 
view it from above. Students, above all, go there 
in numbers. There are universities all around, — 
Marburg, Gottingen, Jena, Leipzig, Halle, Berlin ; 
and the ascent of the Brocken is a sort of exercise 
which the students feel obliged to take. 

It is not, however, only on account of this sin- 
gular spectacle which is seen from the summit, but 
from the nature of its rocks and firs, that the 
Brocken has become famous among the poets. It 
is here that, for a long time, if we are to believe the 
tradition all the witches in Germany have held 



THE BROCKEN. 193 

their rendezvous. They even assert that the devil 
himself hailed down the rocks which cover the cupola 
of the mountain. 

For some years past the ascent of this moun- 
tain has been wonderfully facilitated. I have re- 
lated with what difficulty I formerly mounted. In 
order to understand this, it is necessary to know that 
the Brocken is not a mountain, but literally a heap 
of stones. It is probable that originally it was 
composed of high needles of granite, of which some 
are still to be seen in other parts of the Hartz. 
In course of time these needles have become di- 
vided into enormous blocks, which have fallen and 
accumulated around the base, so that, at length, 
nothing but ruins remain of the primitive edifice. 
It is amidst these blocks that the fir-trees have rooted 
themselves. The waters filter through and roar 
below, and every moment after you quit the regular 
paths, you run the risk of falling into some bog, 
which is half covered with moss and large plants. 
Otherwise, there is scarely a precipice, I may say 
scarcely a ravine, into which one could fall. It is 
a squat monster, on the round back of which a man 
may easily climb. This time I ascended it, not on 
foot, not on a mule, not in a chair carried by 
porters ; I went up in a post-chaise. They have 
made an excellent road, as sure and safe as the gravel 
path of a park, without any danger, without any 
difficulty, without even a jump ; and by just paying a 
very moderate toll, every one is free to avail himself 
of it I could not believe my eyes when I found 
myself in my carriage, with my Hanoverian postilion 



194 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

smacking his whip and blowing his horn on this 
height, which had cost me so dear at my first 
ascent. Add to that, that I had travelled from 
Dresden to Harzburg during the day, and had 
reached the foot of the Brocken after a journey of 
300 miles by railway. 

THE HEXENTANZPLATZ. — THE ZLSENSTEIN. 

It was in the midst of a wild and desert place, 
among heaps of naked and sombre rocks, between 
which the Bode winds its course, that in former 
times the sorceresses of the north held their solemn 
meeting every year on the first of May. The place 
was well chosen, and few persons were likely to 
have the indiscretion to trouble their rendezvous. 
Even in our civilized times, in full daylight, under 
the azure of a fine sky, and in the glad rays of the 
sun, these dark shapeless masses, so rugged and so 
strange, arrest the smile on the lips of the traveller, 
and cause him to think that, however little super- 
stitious he may be, he would feel rather strange 
about midnight, on some peak, or in some dark pas- 
sage of this convulsion of nature, which has the ap- 
pearance of a petrified tempest. Let him suppose, 
to increase the effect, that heavy clouds were hang- 
ing over the summits, that pale lightnings and heavy 
thunders were seen and heard, and there would be 
wanting few favorable conditions to any one who 
wished to assure himself that he was at all times 
master of his nervous system. 

It is on the Hexentanzplatz that Goethe has placed 




THE BROCKEN, HEXENTANZPLATZ 



THE BEOCKEN. 195 

the scenes of the witches' meeting (the Walpurgis 
night) in the drama of ' Faust :' — 

'How strangely across these abysses shines a 
northerly and dim light, which penetrates even into 
the depths of the gulf ! There rises a vapor ; fur- 
ther off an unhealthy exhalation. Here, through a 
veil of mists, flashes a warm brightness, sometimes 
like a light thread, sometimes breaking out as from 
a living source. Here, it winds in a thousand 
streaks across the valley, and further on, in a nar- 
row gorge, it collects all at once. Near us falls a rain 
of sparks, which cover the soil with a gold dust ; 
but look there, in all its heights, the wall of rocks is 
in a blaze.' 

Mephistopheles. — ' Does not Lord Mammon light 
up his palace splendidly for the feast ?' 



l o* 



We can now ascend quite easily on to the Plateau 
of the Witches, thanks to a staircase of eleven hun- 
dred steps. There we are almost opposite to the 
granite rocks of the Eossetrappe (Horse's Hoof- 
print). From the one side you command the valley 
of the Bode ; from the other a vast plain towards 
the west. 

The Ilsenstein, like most part of the Hartz Moun- 
tains, is isolated, and terminates the chain of moun- 
tains which go towards the east, towards the plateau 
of Thuringia. It is in front of the Brocken, and is 
an immense block of granite, which rises to a peak 
at more than 300 feet above the valley, in which 
flows the little river Use, forming an innumerable 



196 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUBES 

number of cascades, which are particularly charm- 
ing, from their bright and smiling appearance in the 
midst of such stern scenery. 

According to tradition, there was at the summit 
of the Ilsenstein an enchanted palace, inhabited by 
a king of the Hartz, named Ilsan ; and he had a 
daughter of remarkable beauty, named Use. A 
wicked fairy caused this charming princess to die of 
jealousy. She is still to be seen sometimes, as the 
superstitious people think, bathing in the river 
which bears her name. If she meets a traveller, 
she conducts him to the interior of the mountain, 
where she loads him with riches. Perhaps the 
meaning of this legend is, that this mountain con- 
tains, like the Eammelsberg, precious mines. The 
summit is reached by a steep pathway, which 
passes over blocks of naked rock of the most singular 
forms. 

From the Ilsenstein you gain the top of the 
Brocken by an easy and picturesque road. This 
mountain, the usual end and aim of excursions in 
the Hartz, is estimated very differently by persons 
who have made the ascent. As on the Bighi, the 
common desire of tourists is to see the sun rise ; 
but though a pure sky is favorable for the spectacle, 
there are also unexpected moments which answer 
the traveller's wishes as perfectly. We had started 
in the evening from Ilsenstein in very bad weather ; 
but we had the good fortune next day to witness one 
of the curious sights which leave a much stronger 
impression than that of a splendid and vast pano- 
rama stretched out beneath one's feet. The clouds 



THE BKOCKEN. 197 

which were crowded over the valley in a compact 
and heavy mass, resembled a sea formed of immense 
and motionless waves ; electric currents passed from 
one to another from time to time, but without pro- 
ducing the least noise. At this moment the sun 
rose, and, by a strange contrast, lighted up, in a 
reddish tint, the upper part of the mountain on 
which we were, without communicating any of this 
lively color to the lower mass of clouds, which 
retained their leaden hues : it seemed as if all the 
bright rays were broken one by one, and decom- 
posed on their surface. The effect was magical : it 
appeared like two different worlds seen the one 
from the other, — the earth seen from some superior 
planet. To describe faithfully what we felt at this 
moment would require the genius of Milton or of 
Dante. 

Magasin Pittoresque. 



XIV, 

PARNASSUS. 

Castri is the name of a miserable village perched 
on a rock, like the nest of a bird of prey ; it is also 
the name borne in the present day by the site of 
Delphos, the ancient sanctuary of Apollo. 

At a little distance from Arakhova, ascending by 
roads where the Kleplit alone can venture without 
trembling, you arrive at excavations worked in the 
rock and consecrated formerly to the god Pan and 
the nymph Gorycia. A long inscription, all de- 
faced, indicates the Gorycian cave, to which access 
for horses was practicable in the time of Pausanias, 
who declares that he had never seen a grotto more 
spacious, or more beautiful ; but now a great part 
of it is filled up by water and ruins. It was at the 
Gorycian cave that the Thyades, priestesses of 
Athens, used to assemble at one time of the year, 
calling to them the women of Phocis and foreign 
women, whom devotion brought to Delphos. Be- 
coming excited at last, by their mysterious practices, 
and, for the time being, in a state of delirium, they 
then mounted the most impracticable paths, and 



PARNASSUS, 199 

reached tlie highest peak of Parnassus. There, lost 
in the clouds, they gave themselves up to strange 
madness in honor of Apollo. 

Some ruins of marble sarcophagi, hidden under 
the vines which on this side cover the stony and 
rapid slope of the valley ; a subterranean chamber 
into which it is easy to penetrate ; the impression 
of the hinges and of the enormous nails of a door in 
the rock ; a door which closed, as they say, a secret 
road leading to the tripod of the Sibyl ; some little 
columns sustaining the external vestibule of a poor 
church ; a basement wall, which they regard as in- 
dicating the place of the temple of Apollo, in which 
the god used to be, and on which may be read an 
inscription well preserved, recording the decrees 
made in honor of the benefactors of the temple, 
the names of several architects employed in con- 
structing or enlarging it, and the enfranchisement 
of a slave by his consecration to the god ; lastly, all 
along the only path which traverses the valley, 
niches of various sizes cut in the rock, and in which 
the image of a Madonna has taken the place of the 
rich oblations of the Pagans : — this is all which is 
left to remind us of the existence of proud Delphos. 
No temples nor statues covered with gold, and 
shining in the sun ; no longer any dances, or 
games, or solemn processions, or assemblies of the 
people ; no Amphictyons regulating the destinies oi 
Greece; no more conquerors eager to tear from 
heaven the secret of their future lives ; no longer any 
philosophers bowing before the sagest and truest 



200 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

device which the genius of Paganism ever brought 
forth : * Know thyself.' 

All has disappeared, just as on the day after a 
fete, the splendid scaffolding, the music, the dances, 
and the pleasure-seeking people, are gone. The 
pale and sorrowful Sibyl seems alone to inhabit 
these sombre and desert places. In a dream into 
which the imagination easily falls, one sees her 
pass, unhappy in her glory and in her involuntary 
science, and conducted by inflexible priests, who 
force her to sit on the fatal tripod, where the god 
awaits her with his furies, his delirium, his tortures, 
and his obscure lies. This recollection is the only 
one which vividly strikes the mind when you stop 
at Delphos. All around are abysses, half open and 
yawning gulfs, resounding echoes, rocks blackened 
as if by fire : such was, and such is still, the valley 
of Delphos. 

If the riches and the magnificence destined to 
veil the terrible mysteries have disappeared, Nature 
is there just the same. Now, as formerly, the 
Phocean, who comes to dream, to seek the shade, 
or to gather flowers, must pass over to the other 
side of Parnassus, in order to find the green 
and melodious forests of Daulis. Some olive-trees 
grow in the hollow of the valley at the outlet from 
which they become more abundant, until they form 
a great wood on the plain, which extends to the 
gulf. In the night, if you awake, you hear the wind 
which comes ceaselessly from the sea, and beats 
against the sides of the rocks, making most lugu- 
brious noises ; and yet, at some paces from thence, 



PABNASSUS. 20J 

in the bay and on the banks of Crissa, the same 
wind sings or sighs in soft and melancholy tones. 
At Delphos, it becomes a dull groaning, a pro- 
longed plaint, which fills the soul with sadness, and 
makes you fear, when you listen to it, that the 
ancient oracle may have recovered its voice, in 
order to reveal to you the future which lies before 

vou. 

«/ 

Y. Gemeniz, Voyage en Greece. 



The Greeks have placed the dwellings of the 
Muses, that is to say, the source of poetical inspira- 
tion, as well as the dwelling of the gods, on the 
highest summits, — there where earth seems to touch 
heaven. The Muses haunted Olympus, Pieria, 
Helicon, and, above all, Parnassus. 

Parnassus is one of the most beautiful mountains 
of Greece ; on its snowy summits walked the chaste 
Muses in their purity ! The summits of Parnassus 
are often enveloped in clouds. 'Who ever saw 
Liakoura without clouds ?' said Lord Byron. This 
peculiarity agrees with the destiny which ancient 
mythology attributed to the holy mountain. The 
poetical creation is a mystery ; it was becoming to 
envelop it in mysterious clouds. 

Among the Greeks, all inspirations were sisters ; 
Parnassus consecrated the alliance of poetical and 
religious enthusiasm. Whilst the Thyades cele- 
brated there those dances which the madness oi 
Bacchus had animated, the Pythian, seated on the 



202 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

tripod, breathed in the prophetic emanations of the 
mountain, Apollo had his temple there, in the place 
of which there now flourishes a laurel, an emblem of 
the inspiration which does not die. The Muses 
bathed there in the stream of Castalia, which is still 
flowing, and whose remarkably pure and light water 
is a charming emblem of the limpid poetry of 
the Greeks. Ingenious in linking the natural pecu- 
liarities of places with ideas, such as the fables 
connected with those places express, the ancients 
had placed the temple of Apollo at the foot of the 
peaked rocks named the Brilliants (Phedriades), 
which reflect even now with so much power the 
arrows of the god. In their eyes the god of light 
and heat was the god of verse ; and they dedicated 
to him a steep and inaccessible peak. The perfec- 
tion of art is a warm and luminous summit, up 
which no pathway leads, and to which only the 
flight of a divine will carries any one. 

Above the site of the ancient Delphos rises the 
double summit so often invoked by poets. It stands 
over against the very picturesque grotto, from which 
flows the spring of Castalia. M. Ulrichs points out 
that certain Latin poets, such as Ovid and Lucan, 
who never were at Delphos, seem to believe that the 
two peaks, at the foot of which the town was built, 
form the culminating point of Parnassus, whilst 
Parnassus has really only one peak, and that is 
true in every sense, at least of the ancient Par- 
nassus. 

One evening, at Drachmani, finding myself at 
the foot of the Parnassus, and following with my 



PAENASSUS. 203 

eye tlie vultures which hover over its sides, I recalled 
the famous liue, — 

" C'est en vain qu'au Parnasse un te'rne'raire auteur." 

I found an immense effort of reflection necessary to 
convince me that this proud mountain, which stood 
erect before me, bathing its rocks, its firs, and its 
abysses in the violet tints of evening, was really the 
Parnassus of Boileau. 

On the other hand, I really found the Parnassus 
which was before me in the ancient poets, and 
above all, in Euripides. And while gazing on those 
rocks, glittering, as they were, in all the brightness 
of a southern sun, I did not feel the words of the 
poet in the * Phenician Virgins ' at all too strong : — 

' Thou rock irradiate with the sacred flame, 
That blazing on thy artful brow, 
Seems double to the vale below.' 

J. J. Ampebe, La Poesie Grecque en Grece. 



The route from the monastery of St. Luke, at 
Delphos, turns along the sides of the Kirphis or 
Xero-Youni, just where it joins the Parnassus or 
Liakoura. After ascending for about half an hour, 
you come to a little chapel situated in the most 
delicious position, close to a spring of water shaded 
by plantains. There was probably here in old 
times a religious station for the pilgrims who came 
to Delphos, for the road seemed to follow the old 
route. When once you have passed these ravines 



204 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

of the chain of the Kirphis you perceive the entrance 
to the deep gorge from which old Delphos was 
visible. Just at the entrance of this gorge, high up 
in the mountain, on the extreme bounds of the 
cultivated ground, and at the foot of those snowy 
cones which give an imposing physiognomy to the 
frowning brow of the Liakoura, appears like a vigi- 
lant watch, the city of Arachova. Some black pine 
forests seem placed near the edge of this sort of 
glacier like a dyke intended to stop the invasion of 
the snows. At the other extremity of this gorge, 
also very high up, at the foot of the porphyry rocks, 
is the village of Castri, built on the ruins of 
Delphos. 

There remained still two hours on horseback to 
turn all the hills and re- ascend as far as to Castri, 
which one always keeps in view ; but in proportion 
as we neared it the sight became at each step more 
beautiful. In the lower parts of the hills one has 
to cross short well-watered and well-planted valleys, 
keeping in your eye the fresh valley of the Plistus. 
As soon as the top of the hills is reached, the bay of 
Salon a, the gulf of Corinth, and in the distance 
the mountains of the Peloponnesus, become visible. 
Going a little further, we found the sea disappear 
again, and we were in an enclosure of high moun- 
tains, and as it were isolated from the rest of the 
world. It must have been a fine spectacle when on 
the solemn feast days the ancient processions used 
to wind away from the two opposite sides, arriving 
by sea at Crissa, and by land on the coasts of Ara- 
chova. From the time of first stepping on this 



PARNASSUS. 205 

sacred ground the traveller passed over tombs : 
some had been erected on this part of the route, 
just as a Christian of ancient days might have 
caused his to be erected near Jerusalem, or in the 
valley of Jehoshaphat ; others have been brought 
down by the fall of the upper rocks, whose enormous 
fragments lie dispersed around. Nothing less than 
one of those violent earthquakes, which are so 
common here, is necessary to pred/pitate them. 

The tombs continue as far as the monastery of 
St. Elias. At some steps from the monastery flows 
a little river which comes from the spring of Castalia, 
situate a little above, on the right of the road. A 
torrent descends from the Parnassus by a fissure 
between two steep rocks, the rock Naplia and that of 
Hyampeia, down which they say the fabulist iEsop 
was precipitated by the inhabitants of Delphos. 
When it reaches the extremity of this narrow fissure, 
the torrent is received into a short arched passage, 
and flows into a square basin dug by nature itself in 
the rock, but increased a little by the hand of man. 
This basin, which is about 30 feet long by 10 wide, 
encloses* the celebrated fountain of Castalia. Below 
the fountain, on the side of a rock a hundred feet 
in perpendicular height, are scooped out three niches. 
That in the middle, which is the largest, probably 
contains a statue of Apollo, and the two others the 
statues of the god Pan and of the nymph Castalia. 
A fourth niche, placed on the right, is shut in by 
walls, and transformed into a chapel dedicated to 
St. John, which has, no doubt, succeeded to the 



206 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

Herounr dedicated to Antinoiis. The Christian re- 
ligion has all over Greece established its altars in 
the very places sanctified by ancient feelings of 
reverence. . . . Seated on a rock in the sound of 
the murmurs of this torrent, on the edge of the Cas- 
talian fountain, which two formidable rocks shut in 
on one side, whilst the other opens on to a deep 
valley — a real solitude enclosed on all sides by 
mountains, I could conceive without difficulty the 
impression of religious feeling which must seize on 
the imagination of visitors, and dispose them to 
receive the decisions of the oracle. 

J. A. Buchon, La Grece continentale et la Moree. 



* A little temple erected by the Greeks in honor of deified 
heroes. 



XV. 

MOUNT AT HO 8. 

BY DR. HUNT. 

On Easter Monday, after a stay of five days, we 
set out with mules provided for us by the convent to 
the town of Chariess, in the centre of the Peninsula, 
where the Turkish Aga and the v council of deputies 
from all the convents reside for the disposal of public 
business. It was necessary to make this visit, in 
order that our imperial firman and our letter from 
the Greek Patriarch might be examined, and that 
we might be informed how to make the tour of the 
convents with the greatest ease and security. The 
distance from Batopaidi to Chariess is two hours and 
three quarters. About three miles from the former 
we had a most striking view of the summit of Athos. 
The whole ride furnishes a succession of sublime 
Alpine scenery. Instead of the usual salutations 
which are exchanged between travellers who meet 
on the road, the only one we now heard was the 
Easter congratulation, ' Christ is risen ;' to which 
the answer is, ' He is the true God.' 

Chariess is the only town in the Peninsula, 



208 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUBES. 

situated nearly in the centre of it, on the side of a 
natural amphitheatre, clothed with the richest ver- 
dure, and cultivated in a manner to render it highly 
picturesque. The meadows are so luxuriant as to 
be cut thrice in a year, owing to the richness of the 
soil, the complete shelter they enjoy, and the ju- 
dicious manner in which the water is distributed by 
irrigation. The vineyards and filbert-gardens are 
also dressed with uncommon care. Excepting the 




houses where the Aga and the council of deputies 
reside, it contains only a few shops, which furnish 
the monasteries with cloth, sugar, tobacco, snuff, and 
cordials. Every Saturday a bazaar or market is 
held there, to which the hermits repair in order to 
sell what they have manufactured in their solitary 
huts. Knit stockings, pictures of saints, a few 
simple oils and essences distilled from plants, com- 
mon knives and forks, on the horn-handles of which 



MOUNT ATHOS. 209 

they engrave, with aqua-fortis, a series of ancient 
Greek moral adages, compose their principal labors. 
The trade of making manuscripts is still practised 
by them ; many devout pilgrims preferring a psalter 
or prayer-book written by a hermit on the holy 
mountain to the clearest printed copy. "Women are 
prevented from coming to the town, as well as from 
visiting any of the convents ; nor is any Mussulman 
permitted to have a shop there. . . . 

As the road we were now about to take towards 
Santa-Laura and the hermitages would conduct us 
amongst crags and mountains, and to places where 
there are few mules to be procured, we left the 
greatest part of our baggage to be sent across the 
Isthmus, to the convent of Xeropotamo, there to 
await our arrival. . . . 

The natural scenery here is particularly striking, 
and the summit of Mount Athos, once consecrated 
by the fame and altars of the Athoan Jove, rears 
itself with awful grandeur above the surrounding 
mountains. The manner in which the torrents, 
breaking from the cliffs above St. Anne's, are dis- 
tributed by a thousand little wooden aqueducts, so 
as to water every spot of garden or vineyard, is 
worthy of being remarked. The woods and thickets 
in the neighborhood are extremely luxuriant, and 
the Arachne arbutus flourishes in such profusion as 
to supply the common fuel. The season was un- 
favorable for our visiting the summit of Athos, 
whence the monks assured us that all the islands of 
the Cyclades may be seen, and even Constantinople, 
in clear weather. They reckon it a journey of five 



210 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

hours from the hermitage to the top of Mount 
Athos. 

When the learned Greeks fled from Constanti- 
nople in 1453, they took with them to Western 
Europe their most valuable manuscripts ; those 
which they left were probably secreted in the 
monasteries. The libraries in the islands of the 
sea of Marmora and of Mount Athos, of the Patri- 
arch of Constantinople, and of St. Saba, near Jeru- 
salem, were carefully examined by Mr. Carlyle and 
myself. . . . 

On taking leave of Father Gerasimos of Chi- 
liantari, we congratulated him on the grace and 
tranquillity which his little religious commonwealth 
enjoyed in the midst of the wars and revolutions of 
Europe ; but he replied that, on the contrary, they 
were in a state of perpetual conflict with three most 
powerful enemies — the devil, their own lusts, and 
the travelling caloyers, who embezzle the alms by 
which the convent should be supported. He accom- 
panied us to the gate, and shaking us affectionately 
by the hand, said he hoped he had left such an im- 
pression of himself on our hearts that we might be 
mutually glad to see each other if Providence ever 
brought us again together, quoting a Turkish 
proverb, ' That mountain never approaches moun- 
tain, nor island island ; but that man often unex- 
pectedly meets fellow-man.' 

We had an escort assigned to us of six well- 
armed Albanians ; our road conducted us through 
the most picturesque and magnificent scenery ; but 
in some places so dangerous from the precipices 



MOUNT ATHOS. 211 

which beetle over the sea that a false step of our 
mules might have been fatal. Six miles from 
Chiliantari we came to the ruins of a castle called 
Callitze ; and two miles further we halted to break- 
fast under the shade of some Oriental planes near a 
fountain, and the bed of a river filled with scarlet 
oleanders and agnus castus. The spot is called 
Paparnitz ; here we saw once more* cows and ewes 
with their young, a proof that we had passed the 
holy precincts. 

From De. Hunt's papers. (Extract from ' Memoirs relating to 
European and Asiatic Turkey,' edited from MS. Journals 6^/Robebt 

WAIiPOLE.) 

* No woman is allowed to enter the gates of any convent on 
the holy mountain ; nor is any female animal permitted to come 
upon the peninsula. The caloyers, or lay brothers, tell every 
traveller that no female animal could live there or upon Mount 
Athos, although they see doves, swallows, and other birds building 
their nests and hatching their young in the thickets, 



XVI. 
310 UNT ELBTJRZ IN THE CAUCASUS. 

SIR E. K. PORTER, OCTOBER 1817. 

Early in the morning we descended the northern 
side of the town into a plain, keeping for a consider- 
able way along the foot of some high, well- wooded 
ground, after which we ascended again over a suc- 
cession of lands until we reached the village and post 
of Zergifskoy, a place situated on the slope of a con- 
siderable hill, conspicuous even as far as Stavrapol, 
from its being composed of whitish sand, which from 
that distance has the appearance of snow. Here two 
Cossacks were given me for an escort ; but how dif- 
ferent were they, both in person and costume, from 
my friends of the Don ! Their stature was low, their 
visages rugged, and their garb of the wildest and 
most savage fashion. These people belong to the 
foot of the Caucasus ; and, as I proceeded further, 
I found most of the inhabitants habited in a similar 
manner. A small cloth cap, bound with sheepskin or 
fur, fits almost close to their head ; while a short 
vest covers their body, and, falling as far as the knee, 
meets a pair of loose trousers, which, stuffed into 



MOUNT ELBUEZ. 213 

boots, completes the uncouth but picturesque habili- 
ment. Their arms are a musket slung across the 
shoulder, protected from the damp by a hairy case ; 
a straight sword fastened to the left side by the belt 
round their waist ; a dagger of great breadth, and 
also a large knife, pendent from the same. On the 
right and left of their breast is sewn a range of nar- 
row pockets, each large enough to hold a wooden case 
containing a charge of powder ; the range usually 
counts six or eight of these charges. Independent 
of this magazine, few go without a light cartouche- 
box attached to another belt which covers the right 
shoulder. Their saddle and the rest of their horse 
accoutrements differ little from the fashion of most 
other Cossacks. But both man and horse are, in 
some measure, protected by their "bouka" & sort of 
cloak made of the hair of the mountain-goat, and 
only manufactured by the mountainers. This forms 
an excellent defence against rain or wind, when 
brought round the body, but in mild weather it is 
merely tied on behind. In addition to the cloak they 
wear a hood for the protection of the face and ears, 
called a " bashlick" No fixed color marks the uni- 
form of the military branch of the imperial Cossacks, 
but brown, grey, and white, seem the favorite hues. 
On quitting Zergifskoy we mounted the height, 
and continued travelling over a country similar to 
that we had passed the preceding day. We hoped 
to gain the town of Alexandroff before night, but 
were disappointed, and obliged to halt at the village 
of Severnaia, finding it impossible to proceed on so 
dangerous a road after dusk. We set off, however, be- 



214 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

times in the morning ; and, after traversing a rather 
uneven country, at the distance of eight or ten versts 
from our lodgings, reached the brow of a very steep 
hill, from whence, for the first time, I beheld the 
stupendous mountains of Caucasus. No pen can ex- 
press the emotion which the sudden burst of this 
sublime range excited in my mind. I had seen almost 
all the wildest and most gigantic chains in Portugal 
and Spain, but none gave me an idea of the vastness 
and grandeur of that I now contemplated. This 
seemed Nature's bulwark between the nations of 
Europe and of Asia. Elborus (Elburz), amongst 
whose rocks tradition reports Prometheus to have 
been chained, stood, clad in primeval snows, a world 
of mountains in itself, towering above all, its white 
and radiant summits mingling with the heavens ; 
while the pale and countless heads of the subordi- 
nate range, high in themselves, but far beneath its 
altitude, stretched along the horizon till lost to sight 
in the soft fleeces of the clouds. Several rough and 
huge masses of black rock rose from the interme- 
diate plain ; their size was mountainous, but being 
viewed near the mighty Causasus, and compared 
with them, they appeared little more than hills ; yet 
the contrast was fine, their dark brows giving greater 
effect to the dazzling summits which towered above 
them. Poets hardly feign when they talk of the 
genius of a place. I know not who could behold 
Caucasus and not feel the spirit of its sublime soli- 
tudes awing his soul. 

After a description of a ten-days' journey, Sir 
It. K. Porter continues : — The road lay over a con- 



MOUNT ELBURZ, 215 

tinuation of the extensive plain, part of which we 
had crossed the day before ; it bore a direction due 
east. On our right rolled the Terek, breaking over 
its stony bed, and washing with a surge, rather 
than a flowing stream, the rocky bases of the moun- 
tains which rise in progressive acclivities from its 
bold shores. The day had begun to clear about 
noon; and the dark curtain of vapors, which had 
so long shut these stupendous hills from my sight, 
broke away into a thousand masses of fleecy clouds ; 
and, as they gradually glided downwards, exhaled 
into ether, or separated across the bows of the moun- 
tains, the vast piles of Caucasus were presented to 
my view ; a world of themselves ; rocky, rugged, and 
capped with snow ; stretching east and west beyond 
the reach of vision, and shooting far into the skies. 
It was a sight to make the senses pause ; to oppress 
even respiration, by the weight of the impression on 
the mind of such vast and overpowering sublimity. 
The proud head of Elborus was yet far distant ; but 
it rose in hoary majesty above all, the sovereign of 
these giant mountains finely contrasting its silvery 
diadem, the snow of ages, with the blue misty brows 
of its intermediate subject range ; and they, being 
yet partially shrouded in the dissolving masses of 
white cloud, derived increased beauty from compari- 
sons with the bold and black forms of the lower 
mountains nearer the plains, whose rude and tower- 
ing tops and almost perpendicular sides sublimely 
carry the astonished eye along the awful picture ; 
creating those feelings of terrific admiration to which 
words can give no name. 



216 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

After a ride of two versts,* we reached the key 
of the celebrated pass into Georgia, where I rejoined 
my companions. 

There is a tradition here that, during the subsid- 
ing of the Deluge, the Ark of Noah, while floating 
over these mountains in the direction of Ararat, its 
place of final rest, smote the head of Elborus with 
its keel, and the cleft it made in the mountain has 
remained ever since. To give any color of feasibi- 
lity to the legend it had better have represented that 
the ark struck off the top of the one mountain in its 
passage to the other ; for, otherwise, Elborus, tower- 
ing as it is, being at present much lower than Ara- 
rat, it could not have been touched at all by the 
sacred vessel floating towards so much higher a re- 
gion. But this oral tradition of some junction having 
taken place between Elborus and the earliest person- 
ages of Holy Writ, is not the only honor of the kind 
attached to the history of this celebrated mountain. 
Heathen tradition and classical writers affirm that 
Elborus was the huge and savage rock of the Cau- 
casus to which Prometheus was bound. And who 
but iEschylus has drawn its picture ? In his pages 
alone we find the magnitude, sublimity, and terrors 
of that " stony girdle of the world," that quarry of 
the globe, whence all its other mountains may seem 
to have been chiselled; such are its wonderful 
abysses, its vast and caverued sides and summits of 
every form aud altitude mingling with the clouds. 
There is still a tradition amongst the natives who 

* Two English miles comprise about three versts Russian. 



MOUJsT ELBUBZ. 217 

reside in the valleys of Elborus that the bones of an 
enormous giant, exposed there by divine wrath, are 
yet to be seen on its smaller summit. Indeed the 
story is so much a matter of firm belief with the rude 
tribes in that quarter of the Caucasus that people 
are to be found amongst them who will swear they 
have seen these huge remains. 

Sib K. K. Poetee, Travels in Georgia, Persia, etc. 



XVII. 

THE TAURUS MOUNTAINS OF CILICIA 
(B UL GEAR-DA GH). 

BY ELISEE RECLUS. 

The appearance of the Bulghar-Dagh differs sin- 
gularly according to the seasons. In autumn, a 
season unfortunately chosen by the greatest number 
of travellers, Nature has already lived its rapid and 
fugitive life, and burnt up by the heat, it is preparing 
for the long sleep of winter. The fields are yellow 
like straw, and only narrow lines of verdure are 
visible along the banks of the rivers ; even the hills 
which rise above the narrow plain seem to hide 
their shrubs under an immense grey veil. Beyond 
extends, it is true, on the sides of the mountains, 
the green zone of the conifers ; but the high peaks 
are covered with dried-up pasture ; all vegetation 
has faded, even to the herbs watered by the snows. 
It might be supposed that a fire had passed over 
this chain of mountains, whose only beauty consists 
in the boldness and severity of its forms. But 
the traveller who looks on Bulghar-Dagh in the joy- 
ful season of spring, or even in the beginning of 



THE TAURUS MOUNTAINS. 219 

summer, will have no Arabia Petrea before his 
eyes ; he will behold a marvellous paradise of fresh- 
ness and beauty exposed in all its splendor to a 
southern sun. A plain, which is narrow on the 
west, but rather wide in the direction of Tarsus, 
extends to the base of the mountain heights, and is 
covered with luxuriant vegetation, interrupted here 
and there by many cultivated fields, which appear 
almost like a chess-board. Beyond rise the first 
hills which set off the verdure of the plain by their 
chalky sides ; but whose summits are also crowned 
by clumps of trees. Higher up, the spurs of the 
mountains stretch out their promontories, which are 
remarkable for their red ochre notches, and cut up by 
steep fissures. The slopes which flank these spurs 
are clothed with vast forests of cedars, firs and juni- 
pers. A line, often indistinct to the naked eye, 
but which the telescope reveals in all its clearness, 
separates this zone of forests from the pastures of 
emerald green which stretch into all the valleys 
their fresh verdure, dotted with patches of dazzling 
snow. Higher still rise in towers the peaks of 
Bulghar-Dagh, like gigantic black crytals separated 
one from the other by plates of silver. The entire 
chain 'forms, as it were, an immense cone, whose 
base is bathed by a sea of blue, and whose summit 
loses itself in an atmosphere no less azure than the 
streams. 

M. Kotschy, who had ascended to the highest 
peak of Bulghar-Dagh in 1836, in company with 
Eussegger, wished to do so again in 1856. Full of 
admiration of this proud mountain, Eussegger had 



220 MOUNTAIN ADVEN1UKES. 

given it the name of Allah-Tepessi, or mountain of 
God ; but the real name under which it is known 
in the country is Metdesis. It may be reached 
from Gullek, by the valley which stretches out to 
the west of the village ; and in no part of Syria or 
of Anatolia, not even on the slopes of Lebanon, are 
cedars to be found so fine as those which cover the 
slopes of this valley, even to a height of more than 
6000 feet. Many thousand of these beautiful cedars 
grow in splendid groups above the sea of pines, firs 
and junipers. But, unhappily, in spite of the posi- 
tive prohibitions of the Pacha, the shepherds have 
a habit of firing the brambles of the high moun- 
tains, and often these fires spread even as far as 
the forests. During the night these conflagrations 
resemble a flaming flood, rolling its waves along the 
slopes ; and by day they veil the mountain in their 
sombre smoke ; so that soon nothing is to be seen but 
blackened trunks where there once stood splendid 
groves. 

Above the zone of the cedars, one enters into 
that of the brambles, which takes the place of what 
in Europe would be pasture land. In the Cilician 
Taurus, except by the banks of its streams, one 
seldom sees grassy slopes ; even to the foot of barren 
rocks and wastes of snow, grow ligneous plants, 
and bushes with foliage of a fine green. At a height 
where on our mountains there extends a uniformly 
grey pasture land, tufts of brilliantly-colored flowers 
adorn the soil, introducing thus into these regions 
a variety and a brightness of which our Alps can 
give us no idea. 



THE TAURUS MOUNTAINS. 221 

The ascent of the Metclesis resembles that of 
most other snowy mountains ; one has to walk along 
the edge of precipices, to pass through couloirs, 
which are frightful in appearance, assisting oneself 
with one's hands in the steepest parts, and trying 
the depth of the snow before placing the feet upon 
it. When a man goes straight up, as Russegger did 
in 1836, he finds the ascent very difficult ; but much 
of the fatigue may be avoided by making a detour 
towards the east, and climbing first to the point 
of the Tchubanhuju, or the Shepherd's Call, a 
mountain so named because the young shepherds, 
as soon as they have arrived at the summit, never 
fail to shout their triumph to their companions who 
are below in charge of the flocks. On the western 
side of the Tchubanhuju, may be remarked in the 
midst of a field of snow, a vast extent of ice which 
might make one believe in the existence of a glacier 
similar to those of the Alps ; but these transparent 
and bluish masses are due to the action of a con- 
siderable stream, which, during cold nights, melts 
the snows near it ; then afterwards this melted snow 
turns into ice. 

The peak of the Metdesis, which is 10,800 feet 
high, commands a very extensive horizon, " a pano- 
rama of divine beauty," said Russegger. In the 
first place, all the great peaks of the chain are 
visible ; each of them being more than 10,400 feet 
high, covered with snow on the side exposed to the 
north wind, and showing their sombre-colored rocks 
on the slopes which are turned towards the south. 
On the north side the inclination of the Metdesis 



222 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

is suddenly interrupted by a frightful precipice ; 
a field of eternal snow, dotted with enormous 
stones, tills up a high valley. Spots of quiet color 
scattered about like islands, tell of gardens and 
orchards ; and on the north side, in one place, they 
form a sort of archipelago. This is where the in- 
dustrious population of Orte-Boor live. Beyond 
this, quite on the horizon, like distant mirrors, 
the waters of two great lakes, and the snows of 
Erdchich, the highest point of Asia Minor, glitter 
in the sun. Beyond all this region rise other moun- 
tains as numberless as the waves of the sea ; while 
on the south inferior chains are to be seen, as well 
as the plain of Tarsus, and the blue Mediterranean. 
By crossing the chain of mountains through one 
of the two passes which lead over to the northern side, 
Gejek-Deppe and the pass of Xochan, and following 
a road which has been daringly cut over the edge of 
the precipices, the argentiferous lead-mines of Bul- 
ghar Maaden will be reached. These mines have 
been" worked since 18J:2 by a hundred industrious 
Greeks. From this charming modern village, you 
descend into the paradise-like valley of Al-Chodcha, 
with its innumerable orchards. It is in this valley, 
according to the natives, that the marvellous plant 
grows whose flowers shine like a number of sparks 
during the night. The sheep and cattle which 
browse on this fairy plant, chew gold, and soon theli- 
tes th are covered with thin sheets of the precious 
metal Those travellers who are happy enough to 
meet with this flower of light gather it with care, 
and almost immediately afterwards they see at their 




A GORGE ]N THE TAURUS 



MOUNT TAURUS. 223 

feet another plant, whose roots are attached to ingots 
of gold. " May you find the flower of light !" the 
Persians say to travellers. M. Kotschy, however, 
great botanist as he is, has not been able in all his 
researches to discover in the Bulghar-Dagh this 
plant with its luminous flowers. 
Elisee Eeclus. Paysages du Taurus cilicien. Revue Germanique. 



MOUNT TAUEUS. BY W. G. BROWNE, 1802. 

The route from Kara-Bignar to Erakli employed 
us about twelve hours ; the road is over a sandy 
plain, which is little cultivated. Erakli, however, 
is agreeably situated in the midst of gardens full of 
fruit and forest-trees. About forty minutes from 
the city begins the ascent of the mountainous ridge, 
a continuation of Taurus. It employed us nearly 
five hours to reach the summit. The Kaludjis, not 
knowing the road, were obliged to take guides 
from Erakli to conduct them. A little further we 
came to a small village, near which I saw, perhaps, 
an acre or two of cultivated land. The Turkmans 
with their flocks, dwelling under tents, inhabit this 
almost inaccessible region. A series of stupendous 
bare rocks succeeds to the first summit. The air is 
cool and salubrious, even in the hottest season ; and 
pellucid springs give spirit and animation to the 
scene. The summit of this primitive ridge is com- 
posed of a large grained marble ; other calcareous 
substances recline on its ample sides, or are up- 
heaved by its frequent asperities. They are all of 



224 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

them massy rocks, without any appearance of strata. 
A number of very ancient cedars, whose stunted 
growth and fantastic branches cast a gloomy shade, 
diversifying the rugged sides of the mountain. 

In my visit to the Turkman tents, I remarked a 
strong contrast between their habits and those of 
the Bedouin Arabs. With the latter, the rights of 
hospitality are inviolable; and while the host pos- 
sesses a cake of bread, he feels it a duty to furnish 
half of it to his guest ; the Turkman offers nothing 
spontaneously, and if he furnishes a little milk or 
butter, it is at an exorbitant price. With him it is 
a matter of calculation whether the compendious 
profit of a single act of plunder, or the more ignoble 
system of receiving presents from the caravans for 
their secure passage, be most advantageous. The 
Arab values himself on the hasb-we-nasb, that is, 
his ancient pedigree ; the Turk on his personal 
prowess. With the former civility requires that 
salutations be protracted to satiety ; the latter 
scarcely replies to a salam aleikum. 

The muleteers, who had preferred this devious 
path to the highroad to avoid the Dellis, were now 
alarmed at the frequent visits of the Turkmans. 
They described me to them as an officer of Chappan 
Oglon's retinue, employed to communicate with the 
English fleet on the coast, an explanation which ap- 
peared to satisfy them ; and fortunately I was able 
to support that character. It is to be observed that 
Chappan Oglon has a large military force at his 
disposal, and administers justice with a rod of iron. 
His vengeance pursues on eagle's wings the slightest 



MOUNT TAURUS. 225 

transgression against his authoiity. Our precau- 
tions at night were redoubled ; and I divided the 
time into two watches, which I ordered my ser- 
vant to share with me, but the disposition to sleep 
having speedily got the better of his vigilance, 
a pipe, although carefully placed under the carpet 
on which I slept, was stolen unperceived before 
morning. 

The dress of the Turkmans consists of a large 
striped and fringed turban, fastened in a manner 
peculiar to themselves ; or sometimes of a simple 
high-crowned cap of white felt. A vest, usually 
white, is thrown over the shirt ; the Agas superadd 
one of cloth ; and in general, and in proportion to 
their rank and wealth, they approximate to the 
dress of the capital. But the common people wear 
a short jacket of various colors. A cincture is 
indispensably required, in which are fixed an enor- 
mous yatagar and pistol. 

-Many of them wear half boots, red or yellow, 
laced to the leg ; the dress of the women is a 
colored vest, and a piece of white cotton cloth on 
the head, covering part of the face. They are mas- 
culine and active, performing all the harder kinds 
of labor required by the family. Their features 
are good, but not pleasing. The men are gener- 
ally muscular, and well proportioned; tall, straight, 
and active. Their teeth are white and regular ; 
their eyes are often extremely piercing ; and there 
is an air of uncommon boldness in their counten- 
ances and mode of p.Jdress. Their complexions are 
clear, but sunburnt. In a word, they have every- 



226 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

thing that denotes exhaustless health and vigor of 
body. A great resemblance is visible between them 
and the populace of Constantinople ; but the latter 
appear effeminate by the comparison. Every 
action and every motion of the Turkman is marked 
by dignity and grace. Their language is clear and 
sonorous, but less soft than that of the capital ; ex- 
pressing, as may be conceived, no abstract ideas, 
for which the Turkish is indebted to the Arabic 
alone ; but, fitted to paint the stronger passions, 
and to express in the most forcible manner and la- 
conic terms, the mandates of authority. Their 
riches consist of cattle, horses, arms, and various 
habiliments. How lamentable to think that with 
persons so interesting, and a character so energetic, 
they unite such confirmed habits of idleness, vio- 
lence, and treachery. From the rising of the sun 
till his disappearance the males are employed only 
in smoking, conversing, inspecting their cattle, or 
visiting their acquaintance. They watch at night 
for the purpose of plunder, which, among them, is 
honorable in proportion to the ingenuity of the con- 
trivance or the audacity of the execution. Their 
families are generally small, and there is reason to 
think that their number is not increasing. 

The destructive locust has not spared even the 
solitary domain of these wandering tribes. An in- 
finity of junipers and cedars overspread the first 
descent of the mountain, which is long and steep, 
and covered with loose stones. Those near the 
summit are granite and hornblende ; lower down, 
limestone is the prevailing substance. The dwarf 



MOUNT TAURUS. 227 

elder, whose odor is very agreeable, skirts the moun- 
tain to a certain height. The route from Erakli to 
Tarsus occupied in the whole about twenty-nine 
hours. On the third day we rode for about a mile 
through the bed of a torrent, now dry, but occa- 
sionally flowing between lofty and tremendous 
rocks. We soon after ascended another range in- 
ferior in height to the first ; having crossed it we 
continued our journey through a beautifully wooded 
valley in which there are a great variety of orna- 
mental trees and shrubs. On one side is a precipice 
descending to the dry bed of a torrent, and on both, 
lofty and almost perpendicular rocks shaded with 
the most luxuriant verdure. A few spots might be 
remarked which were capable of cultivation ; but 
the valley contained many fragments of granite, 
micaceous schistus and limestone. 

From the last resting-place another descent 
ensued, which at length brought us into an exten- 
sive plain, shortly afterwards to Tarsus, distant 
about three hours from the sea. 

W. G. Beown, 1802. From Walpole's Turkey, 



XYin. 

MOUNT LEBANON. 

ASCENT BY LORD LINDSAY IN 1837. 

Starting from Deir el Akhruar, at a quarter past 
four in the morning, and ascending through woods 
of prickly oak and vselonidi, we reached in three 
hours the ruined village Ainnet, from which begin 
the steep ridges of Lebanon. All the trees ceased 
now, except a species of dwarf cedar, emitting a 
delicious fragrance, which replaced them, and con- 
tinued, though diminishing in number, almost to 
the summit. The rocky slope of the mountain is 
covered with yellow, white, red, and pink flowers, 
affording delicious food to the bees ,of Lebanon : 
their honey is excellent. At eight we came in 
sight of Lake Leman of the East, or Yemouni, as 
every one pronounced it, lying to the south, em- 
bosomed between the upper and lower ridges. An 
hour afterwards, we reached an immense wreath of 
snow, lying on the breast of the mountain, just be- 
low that summit ; and from that summit, five min- 
utes afterwards, what a prospect opened before us ! 
Two vast ridges of Lebanon, curving westwards from 



MOUNT LEBANON. 229 

the central spot where we stood, like horns of a 
bent bow or the wings of a theatre, run down towards 
the sea, breaking in their descent into a hundred 
minor hills, between which, unseen, unheard, and 
through as deep, and dark, and jagged a chasm as 
ever yawned, the Kadisha, or Sacred River of Le- 
banon, rushes down to the Mediterranean, the blue 
and boundless Mediterranean, which, far on the west 
horizon, meets and mingles with the sky. Our eyes 
coming home again, after roving over this noble 
view, we had leisure to observe a small group of 
trees, not larger, apparently, than a clump in an 
English park at the very foot of the northern 
wing or horn of this grand natural theatre : — these 
were the far-famed cedars. We were an hour and 
twenty minutes in reaching them, the descent being 
very precipitous and difficult. As we entered the 
grove, the air was quite perfumed with their odor, 
" the smell of Lebanon " so celebrated by the pen of 
inspiration. 

We halted under one of the largest trees, in- 
scribed with De La Borde's name on one side, and 
De La Martine's on the other. But do not think 
that we were sacrilegious enough to wound these 
glorious trees ; there are few English names com- 
paratively, I am happy to say, — I would as soon cut 
my name on the wall of a church. 

Several generations of cedars, all growing promis- 
cuously together, compose this beautiful grove. The 
younger are very numerous ; the second-rate would 
form a noble wood of themselves, were even the pat- 
riarchal dynasty quite extinct, — one of them, by no 



230 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

means the largest, measures nineteen feet and a 
quarter in circumference, and, in repeated instances, 
two, three, and four large trunks spring from a sin- 
gle root, but they have all a fresher appearance than 
the patriarchs, and straighter stems, — straight as 
young palm-trees. Of the giants, there are seven 
standing very near each other, all on the same hill ; 
three more, a little further on, nearly in a line with 
them, and, in a second walk of discovery, after my 
companions had lain down to rest, I had the pleasure 
of detecting two others low down on the northern 
edge of the grove, twelve therefore in all, of which 
the ninth from the south is the smallest, but even 
that bears tokens of antiquity coeval with its 
brethren. 

The stately bearing and graceful repose of the 
young cedars contrast singularly with the wild and 
frantic attitude of the old ones, flinging abroad their 
knotted and muscular limbs like so many Laocoons, 
while others, broken off, lie rotting at their feet ; but 
life is strong in them all, they look as if they had 
been struggling for existence with evil spirits, and 
God had interposed and forbidden the war, that the 
trees He planted might remain living witnesses to 
faithless men of that ancient " Glory of Lebanon," — 
Lebanon, the emblem of the righteous, — which de- 
parted from her when Israel rejected Christ ; her 
vines drooping, her trees few, that a child may 
number them, she stands blighted, a type of the 
unbeliever! And blighted she must remain till 
her second spring, the day of renovation from the 
presence of the Lord, when, at the voice of God, 



MOUNT LEBANON. 231 

Israel shall spring anew to life, and the cedar and 
the vine, the olive of Carmel and the rose of Sharon, 
emblems of the moral graces of God, reflected in 
His people, shall revive in the wilderness, to beautify 
the place of His sanctuary and to make the place of 
His feet glorious, to swell the chorus of Universal 
Nature to the praise of the living God. 

We had intended proceeding that evening to 
Psherre, but no, we could not resolve to leave those 
glorious trees so soon, the loveliest, the noblest, the 
holiest, in the wide world. The tent was pitched, 
and we spent the rest of the day under their 
" shadowy shroud." Oh, what a church that grove 
is ! Never did I think Solomon's Song so beautiful, 
and that most noble chapter of Ezekiel, the thirty- 
first, I had read it on the heights of Syene, Egypt 
on my right hand, and Ethiopia on my left, with 
many other denunciations (how awfully fulfilled !) 
of desolations against Pathros, and judgments upon 
No, — but this was the place to enjoy it, lying under 
one of those vast trees, looking up every now and 
then into its thick boughs, the little birds warbling, 
and a perpetual hum of insect life pervading the air 
with its drowsy melody. Eden is close by, — these 
are " the trees of Eden," " the choicest and best of 
Lebanon," these are the trees (there can be none 
nobler) which Solomon spoke of, " from the cedar of 
Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall," the object of 
repeated allusion and comparison throughout the 
Bible, — the emblem of the righteous in David's 
Sabbath hymn, and, honor upon honor, the like- 



232 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

ness of the countenance of the Son of God in the 
inspired Canticles of Solomon. 

Our encampment was very picturesque that 
night, the fire throwing a strong light on the cedar 
that o'ercanopied us : those enormous arms, of 
ghastly whiteness, seemed almost alive and about to 
grasp and catch us up into the thick darkness they 
issued from. 

The direct road from the cedars to the village 
of Eden is little more than two hours ; we were de- 
sirous, however, of seeing the famous Convent of 
Canubin (or Anubin, as they pronounced it, always 
dropping the initial C), and accordingly, on arriving 
at Psherre, after an hour and twenty minutes' ride, 
we sent on the baggage direct under Allwyn's care, 
who was not well enough to accompany us. 

The descent to Psherre (the Beshirai of the 
maps) was very precipitous, but nothing to what 
awaited us beyond it; the village lies in a lovely 
valley, all verdant with vines and fruit-trees, and 
musical with cascades ; and the breezes of Lei anon, 
— who that has ever quaffed can forget them ? To 
the east, on the slope of the valley, stands the Con- 
vent of Mar Serkis, almost concealed among thick 
groves, with a very remarkable pointed rock arising 
over it. Our route lay westwards, along the edge 
of the ravine, broken every now and then by deep 
gullies, descending from the northern Lebanon, each 
with its torrent dashing down from the mountains, 
and sometimes forming beautiful cascades over the 
rocks, light clouds of spray hovering over their de- 
scent. We passed the- village Hatsheit at nine, and 



MOUNT LEBANON. 233 

that of Belansi at ten, both situated on the edge of 
the chasm ; looking eastwards from this point to- 
wards its head, we saw the river Kadisha, like a 
silver thread descending from Lebanon. The whole 
scene bore that strange and shadowy resemblance to 
the wonderful landscape delineated in "Kubla 
Khan," that one often feels in actual life, when the 
whole scene around you appears to be re-enacting 
after a long interval, your friends seated in the same 
juxtaposition, the subject of conversation the same, 
and shifting with the same " dream-like ease," that 
you remember at some remote indefinite period of 
pre-existence ; you always know what will come 
next, and sit spell-bound as it were in a sort of 
calm expectancy. One would almost have thought 
Coleridge had been here in some such vision, or at 
least that some such description of the valley had 
been unconsciously lingering on his memory, — the 
general resemblance between the scene he has 
painted and that before us is so striking. I dare 
not insist on the coincidence of there being "a 
sacred river " in both landscapes, in proof of their 
identity, " there is a river in Macedon, and there is 
a river at Monmouth ; it is called the Wye at Mon- 
mouth ; it is out of my province what is the name 
of the other river, but it is all one, and so like as my 
fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmon in 
both !" 

Beyond Belansi we began the descent to Canubin 
by a very difficult path, occasionally hewn into rude 
steps. This magnificent ravine (I speak of it gene- 
rally, as we viewed it from different points) is of 



234: MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

immense depth, broken into vast hollows, overhung 
with trees, chiefly prickly oaks, and shooting into 
pinnacles, between which the mountain torrents 
rush down on all sides, some of them forming beau- 
tiful cascades, many hundred feet in height. At 
Canubin, however, the voice even of the Kadisha is 
scarcely heard ; a profound silence reigns, all is 
grandeur, but grandeur in repose, — the choicest 
place in the world for dreaming away one's life in 
monastic inactivity. The convent hangs about 
two-thirds down the precipice, partly built up 
against, partly excavated in the rocks ; it looks as 
if held by cramping irons in its present position, so 
deep is the abyss below, so menacing the rocks that 
overhang it. 

Here, in winter only, resides the Batrah, or 
Patriarch, of the Maronites : we had expected to 
see him, but were disappointed to hear that he had 
flown off with all the brethren to Adiman, their 
summer residence on the top of the mountain op- 
posite. 

Several leaves of the Syriac Bible alighted at our 
feet as we rode up to the gate, and a lay-Maronite, 
who made his appearance at the window above it, 
seemed quite indifferent to their fate. He informed 
us, in addition to the unwelcome news of the Bat- 
rah's absence, that there was nothing in the con- 
vent for man or beast. This did not at all coin- 
cide with our plans, which were to rest there a few 
hours, feed our horses and ourselves, and then pro- 
ceed in the afternoon to Eden ; we, therefore, the 
gate being open, took possession of the monastery, 



MOUNT LEBANON. 235 

searched and discovered corn in abundance, fed our 
horses, established ourselves in the pleasantest 
place we could find, and then tried to persuade the 
Maronite that food for man was also producible, 
assuring him, as we did from the first, that we had 
feloush enough to pay for it. All persuasion was 
in vain till a sort of major-domo arrived, to whom 
intelligence had been sent of the capture of the con- 
vent ; from that moment all was cordial hospitality, 
— he unlocked a small room, furnished with mats, 
produced some of the sweet red wine of Lebanon, 
and, by degrees, the most sumptuous dejeuner a la 
fourchette we had seen for many a day made its ap- 
pearance, — salad, cheese, grapes honey, and dibs, a 
syrup expressed from grapes, and delicious Arab 
bread, — a meal for princes ! 

Duriug the glow of victory, for we virtually re- 
signed our conquest the moment that hospitable 
thoughts were evinced by the rightful proprietors, 
we explored the convent as thoroughly as a lingering 
respect for bolts and bars permitted. There is no- 
thing worth seeing except the church, which is a 
large and beautiful grotto cut lengthways in the 
rock that overhangs the monastery. The portraits 
of the patriarchs mentioned by old travellers, no 
longer line its walls, but there are several paintings 
of a character superior to that one would expect to 
see in such an out-of-the-way place, — daubs, but 
done in Italy ; the best of them was an assumption 
of the Virgin over the altar. In, and on a press 
in the church, lay many books and manuscripts, the 
former chiefly printed at Rome by the Propaganda, 



236 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

some of the latter most beautifully written, — all in 
Arabic, I suppose, but in the Syriac character. The 
Bible to which the leaves that flew out of the win- 
dow with such empressement to welcome us be- 
longed, lay in a small apartment at the end of a 
long gallery built up against the rock, and over- 
looking the gate. 

After a hearty meal and comfortable siesta we 
remounted, and with the major-domo as guide, a 
merry and good-humored fellow, re-ascended the 
gorge we had come down by, but up its western 
side. We presently passed a small chapel cut in 
the rock ; the whole valley, indeed, is full of the 
excavated dwellings of ancient hermits. The scenery 
was still more beautiful at this evening hour, the 
southern declivity all shadow, except the salient 
points of rock. 

After about an' hour's ascent we came in sight 
of the vale of Eden, with the village on the 
northwest side of it, so that we had to wind round 
the head of the valley to reach it, — there is no 
cutting across country in Mount Lebanon, and who 
would wish to do so, and abridge his enjoyment? 
Above, below, around you, wherever you cast your 
eyes, man and nature vie with each other in beauti- 
fying and enriching the landscape. Man affording 
nature a field to display her bounty upon, by ter- 
racing the hills to their very summits, that not a 
particle of their soil may be lost, — Nature in reward- 
ing his toil by the richest luxuriance, pouring grain 
into his lap, and wine into his cup, without measure. 
The slopes, too, of the valleys one mass of verdure, 



MOUNT LEBANON. 237 

are yet more productive than the hills, thanks " to 
the springs of Lebanon " that come gushing down 
so fresh and cool and melodious in every direction, 
— vines twine around and hang in garlands from 
every tree; mulberries are cultivated in immense 
quantities, with houses for the silk-worms, of dry 
branches or matting, bound with reeds, built be- 
tween the trees ; they never pluck off the leaves, 
but cut whole boughs off for the silk-worms ; the 
trees, however, are little injured in appearance, as 
many boughs as are seen on a young fig-tree being 
left untouched on each. The fig-trees are beautiful, 
the apricots delicious, and as common as apples in 
England. Walnut-trees of majestic growth and 
beautiful produce, flourish beside the deep torrent- 
beds, along with the weeping willow and Lombardy 
poplar, the only unfruitful trees in this garden of 
Eden ; for all I have said, though descriptive gene- 
rally of the valleys of this part of Lebanon, applies 
strictly to that we have just descended to from Ca- 
nubin. And then the cordial greeting of the country 
people, poor, but all seemingly happy and contented, 
and as like each other in features as brothers and 
sisters, — a smile on every woman's countenance, all 
of them unveiled, and some very pretty, the steeples 
of the village churches peeping out through the 
trees, and the bells answering each other across the 
ravines every morning and evening, were moral 
charms that doubled the attractions of the scenery ; 
we felt ourselves in a Christian country and almost 
among brethren. 

Eden is built on a lofty ridge, extremely pre- 



238 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

cipitous, its sides supported by terraces, wherever 
it has been possible to introduce them, planted with 
vines, mulberries, and corn. A considerable tor- 
rent, augmented in its course by minor rills, flowing 
in cascades from the hills, rushes down a deep ra- 
vine towards the south. We reached the village 
after a quarter-of-an-hour's ascent from the bridge, 
and found our friend Allwyn encamped near a cas- 
cade in a magnificent grove of walnut-trees. Pell 
and I, pursuant to his advice, started off immediate- 
ly on foot for the brow of a hill about twenty min- 
utes distant to catch the sunset view of the western 
side of Lebanon ; it was superb ! Tripoli was con- 
cealed by the rising ground, but the headland, the 
part where the merchants reside, the vessels, the 
towers, remnants of the old fortifications of the 
knightly Berengers, were clearly visible, and the 
seaward course of Kadisha, distinguishable at inter- 
vals by its snow-white foam. More to the south, 
we saw the bold headland near Batroun, the moun- 
tain that hid Djibail, etc., etc., and, beyond all, the 
Mediterranean . 

A crowd of villagers congregated under the 
trees in front of our tent that night : children were 
romping about, some one was modulating the shep- 
herd's reed not unmelodiously, it was a more cheer- 
ful scene than I ever witnessed in the lowlands of 
Syria or Palestine, where the merry-hearted sigh 
and the mirth of the tabret has almost ceased in 
the land. * * * 

We returned to Psherre, by the direct route, the 
following afternoon, with the intention of proceed- 



MOUNT LEBANON. 239 

ing to Zachli, by Akoura and Afka, along the 
heights of Lebanon and thence to Damascus. 
Burckkardt is the only traveller I know of who has 
taken this route ; and a most sublime and beautiful 
one it is, so far as Akoura and Afka, beyond which 
I cannot speak of it, the guide having led us, either 
ignorantly or knavishly, into another road. 

Loed Lindsay, Letters on Egypt, Edom, and the Holy Land. 



XIX. 
MOUNT ARARAT. 

BY SIR ROBT. KER PORTER, NOV. 1817. 

On leaving our halting-place, a fuller view of the 
great plain of Ararat gradually expanded before us, 
and the mountain itself began to tower in all its 
majesty to the very canopy of heaven. It bore 
southeast from the line of our caravansary. We 
now took a descending position, due east over a 
stony and difficult road, which carried us, for more 
than ten versts, through several close and rocky 
denies, and over as many frozen streams, till we 
reached a small Mahometan village on the side of 
the Mosduan hills. We halted there for the night, 
and, for the first time, I slept under the roof of a 
Mussulman. My goodly escort had already made 
themselves acquainted with the substance of the 
honest people ; for, in our way to the village, some 
of them spied a flock of sheep with their shepherd, 
at a little distance on the plain, and starting away 
scoured off immediately towards them. Not guess- 
ing their intentions, I supposed they were aware of 
the approach of some hostile band, and were charg- 



i 



MOUNT ARARAT. 241 

ing to meet them. My surprise, therefore, was 
rather excited when I saw them plunge into the mass 
of the flock, the shepherd run for his life, and in a 
few minutes the troop return with their spoils, — two 
or three sheep with their throats cut, which were 
soon skinned, dressed, and eaten. This was nothing 
more, in their opinion, than a mere exercise of 
their horses ; a chcvppow (or fray), as much their 
right as the air they breathe, and as little to be 
complained against by the owner of the sheep as the 
gathering of a few turnips in a neighbor's field 
might be by some of us, though it certainly was 
something new to an Englishman of the nineteenth 
century to find himself thus at the head of a band 
with such habits. 

On the morning of the 17th of Nov. (O. S.) we 
left our hospitable Mussulmans ; for whether they 
were so inclined or overawed by the fierce looks 
and glittering arms of my attendants, I will not 
pretend to say, but I had no reason to complain 
of their want of civility. We set forth over a road 
as hard as that of the day before, in a direction 
southeast, and gradually descending from a great 
height through a very extended sloping country, 
towards the immense plain of Ararat. In our way 
we passed the relics of a considerable town called 
Talish. A little further we saw the ruins of what 
had been a fine caravansary on the side of a moun- 
tain stream, and from amidst the mouldering 
walls, we observed a few half-starved wretches creep- 
ing to the air, as if that were their only aliment. 
Indeed, sterility seemed to have been the curse of 



242 



MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 



this immediate spot. Not a trace of verdure was 
discoverable on the ground ; all parts were covered 
with volcanic stones, or rather masses of cinders, as 
if thrown from an iron forge, — black, heavy, and 
honey-combed. Lower down, upon this long de- 
clivity, rises a mound of earth and rock, which in 




Monnt Ararat. 



any neighborhood but that of Ararat, would be 
called a mountain. Here it appears scarcely a hill. 
Its form and substance are evidently those of an 
extinguished volcano ; but in what age it has been 
at work, we have not means to guess ; no authors 



MOUNT ARARAT. 243 

of established verity, ancient or modern, having 
said one word of any known volcanic eruption in 
the region of Ararat. Besides the cinders above 
mentioned, I observed in several places during our 
downward march large portions of rock, of a soft 
red stone, bearing likewise the marks of calcination. 
As the vale opened beneath us in our descent 
my whole attention became absorbed in the view 
before me. A vast plain, peopled with countless 
villages, the towers and spires of the churches of Eitch 
mai-adzan, arising from amidst them, the glittering 
waters of the Araxes, flowing through the fresh green 
of the vale ; and the subordinate range of mountains 
skirting the base of the awful monument of the 
antediluvian world. It seemed to stand a stupen- 
dous link in the history of man, uniting the two 
races of man, before and after the flood. But it 
was not until we arrived upon the flat plain that I 
beheld Ararat in all its amplitude of grandeur. 
From the spot on which I stood it appeared as if 
the largest mountains of the world had been piled 
upon each other to form this one sublime immensity 
of earth, and rock, and snow. The icy peaks of its 
double heads rose majestically into the clear and 
cloudless heaven ; the sun blazed bright upon them 
and the reflection sent forth a dazzling radiance 
equal to other suns. This point of the view united 
the utmost grandeur of plain and height. Bat the 
feelings I experienced while looking on the moun- 
tain are hardly to be described. My eye, not able 
to rest for any length of time upon the blinding 
glory of its summits, wandered down the apparently 



24A MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

interminable sides, till I could no longer trace their 
vast lines in the mists of the horizon ; when an. 
irrepressible impulse, immediately carrying my eye 
upwards again, refixed my gaze upon the awful glare 
of Ararat ; and this bewildered sensibility of sight 
being answered by a similar feeling in the mind, for 
some moments I was lost in a strange suspension of 
the powers of thought. 

Agridagh is the name given to this sublime 
mountain by the Turks ; and the Armenians call it 
Malis ; but all unite in revering it as the haven of 
the great ship which preserved the father of man- 
kind from the waters of the deluge. The height of 
Ararat has never yet been measured with any satis- 
factory degree of accuracy ; though Capt. Monteith, 
of the Madras Engineers, has gone nearer to the 
mark, perhaps, than any other traveller. . . These 
inaccessible summits have never been trodden by the 
foot of man since the days of Noah, if even then ; 
for my idea is, that the ark rested in the space be- 
tween these heads, and not on the top of either. 
Various attempts have been made, in different ages, 
to ascend these tremendous mountain-pyramids, but 
in vain. Their form, snows, and glaciers, are in- 
surmountable obstacles, the distance being so great, 
from the commencement of the icy region to the 
highest point, cold alone would be the destruction 
of any person who should ha^ve the hardihood to 
persevere.* 



* Nevertheless, this ascent was accomplished in 1850, by Col, 
Khodzko. 



MOUNT AEARAT. 245 

On viewing Mount Ararat from the northern side 
of the plain its two heads are separated by a wide 
cleft, or rather glen, in the body of the mountain. 
The rocky side of the greater head runs almost per- 
pendicularly down to the northeast, while the lesser 
head rises from the sloping bosom of the cleft in a 
perfectly conical shape. Both heads are covered 
with snow. The form of the greater is similar to 
the lesser, only broader and rounder at the top, and 
shows to the northwest a broken and abrupt front, 
opening, about half-way down, into a stupendous 
chasm, deep, rocky, and peculiarly black. At that 
part of the mountain, the hollow of the chasm re- 
ceives an interruption from the projections of minor 
mountains, which start from the sides of Ararat, like 
branches from the root of a tree, and run along in 
undulating progression till lost in the distant vapors 
of the plain. 

The dark chasm which I have mentioned as 
being on the side of the great head of the mountain, 
is supposed by some travellers to have been the 
exhausted crater of Ararat. Dr. Benizzi even 
affirms it, by stating that, in the year 1783, during 
certain days of the months of January and February, 
an eruption took place in that mountain ; and he 
suggests the probability of the burning ashes ejected 
thence at that time, reaching to the southern side of 
the Caucasus (a distance in a direct line of two hun- 
dred and twenty versts) ; and so depositing the vol- 
canic productions which are found there. The reason 
he gives for this latter supposition is, that the trapp 
seen there did not originate in those mountains, 



246 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

and must, consequently, have been sent thither by 
volcanic explosions elsewhere. And that this else- 
where, which he concludes to be Ararat, may have 
been that mountain, I do net pretend to dispute ; 
but these events must have taken place many 
centuries ago, even before history took note of the 
spot ; for, since that period, we have no intimation 
whatever of any part of Ararat having been seen in 
a burning state. This part of Asia was well known 
to the ancient historians, from being the seat of 
certain wars they describe ; and it cannot be sup- 
posed that, had so conspicuous a mountain been 
often, or ever (within the knowledge of man) in a 
state of volcanic eruption, we should not have heard 
of it from Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, or others ; but, 
on the contrary, all these writers are silent on such 
a subject with regard to Ararat ; while every one 
who wrote in the vicinities of Etna or of Vesuvius 
had something to say of the thunders and molten 
fires of those mountains. That there are volcanic 
remains, to a vast extent, around Ararat, every 
person who visits its neighborhood must testify ; 
and, giving credit to Dr. Benigg's assertion, that an 
explosion of the mountain had happened in his 
time, I determined to support so interesting a fact, 
with the evidence of every observation on my part, 
when I should reach the spot. But, on arriving at 
the monastery of Eitch-mai-adza, where my remarks 
must chiefly be made, and discoursing with the 
fathers on the idea of Ararat having been a volcano, 
I found that a register of the general appearance of 
the mountain had been regularly kept by their pre- 



MOUNT ARARAT. 247 

decessors and themselves, for upwards of eight hun- 
dred years ; and that nothing of an eruption, or any 
thing tending to such an event, was to be found on 
any one of these notices. When I spoke of an ex- 
plosion of the mountain having taken place in the 
year 1783, and which had been made known to 
Europe by a traveller declaring himself to have 
been an eye-witness, they were all in surprise ; and, 
besides the written documents to the contrary, I was 
assured by several of the holy brethren, who had 
been resident in the plain for upwards of forty years, 
that during the whole of that period they had never 
seen even a smoke from the mountain. Therefore, 
how the author in question fell into so very erro- 
neous a misstatement, I can form no guess. 

ISjb 11. K. Poetek, Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, eto. 



XX. 

MOUNT SINAI. 

ASCENT BY DR. ROBINSON, MAKCH 1838. 

The lower and easier road from Wady-et-Taiyibeh 
to Sinai enters the Feiran from the head of Wady 
Mukatteb, and follows it up Wady-esh-Sheikh almost 
to the convent. From the point where we now 
were, this road is long and circuitous ; while a 
shorter one strikes directly towards the convent, 
ascending in part by a narrow and difficult pass. 
We took the latter ; and, crossing Wady-esh-Sheikh, 
proceeded on a course S.E. by S., up to the broad 
Wady, or rather sloping plain, Es-Seheb, thickly 
studded with shrubs, but without trees. Here and 
around Wady-esh-Sheikh are only low hills, lying 
between the rocky mountains behind us and the 
cliff of Sinai before us ; and forming, as it were, a 
lower belt around the lofty central granite region. 
Over these walls, — low walls of porphyry or grun- 
stein, — like those above described, run in various 
directions, stretching off to a great distance. 

We came to the top of the plain at a quarter 



MOUNT SINAI. 249 

before eleven o'clock, where is a sharp, but rough, 
pass, full of debris, having on the right a low, sharp 
peak called El-Orf. From this point to the base of 
the cliffs of Sinai there is a sort of belt or track of 
gravel or sand, full of low hills and ridges. 

The black and frowning mountains before us, 
the outworks, as it were, of Sinai, are here seen to 
great advantage, rising abrupt and rugged from 
their very base, eight hundred to a thousand feet in 
height ; as if forbidding all approach to the sanc- 
tuary within. 

At half-past twelve o'clock we began gradually 
to ascend towards the foot of the pass before us, 
called by our Arabs Mukb Hawy, Windy Pass, and 
by Burckhardt Mukb-er-Rahah, from the tract 
above it. We reached the foot at a quarter past 
one o'clock, and, dismounting, commenced* the slow 
and toilsome ascent along the narrow defile, about 
S. by E., between blackened shattered cliffs of 
granite, some eight hundred feet high, and not 
more than two hundred and fifty yards apart ; which 
every moment threatened to send down their ruins 
on our heads. Nor is this at all times an empty 
threat ; for the* whole pass is filled with large stones 
and rocks, the debris of these cliffs. The bottom 
is a deep and narrow watercourse, where the 
wintry torrent sweeps down with fearful violence. 
A path has been made for camels along the shelving 
piles of rocks, partly by removing the topmost 
blocks, and sometimes by laying down large stones 
side by side, somewhat in the manner of a Swiss 
mountain road. But although I had crossed the 



250 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

most rugged passes of the Alps, and made from 
Chamounix the whole circuit of Mont Blanc, I had 
never found a path so rude and difficult as that we 
were now ascending. The camels toiled slowly and 
painfully along, stopping frequently ; so that, al- 
though it took them two hours and a quarter to 
reach the top of the pass, yet the distance cannot 
be reckoned at more than one hour. . . . Higher up 
the path lies in the bed of the torrent, and became 
less steep. As we advanced the sand was occa- 
sionally moist, and on digging into it with the hand, 
the hole was soon filled with fine sweet water. We 
tried the experiment in several places. Here, too, 
were several small palm-trees, and a few tufts of 
grass, the first we had seen since leaving the borders 
of the Nile. Burckhardt mentions a spring, called 
Kaneitan, in this part of the pass ; but it was now 
dry; at least we neither saw nor heard of any. In 
the pass we found upon the rocks two Sinaitic in- 
scriptions, one of them having over it a cross of the 
same date. 

It was half-past three o'clock when we reached 
the top, from which the convent was said to be an 
hour distant, but we found it two hours, as did also 
Burckhardt. Descending a little into a small Wady, 
which has its head here, and runs off through a cleft 
in the western mountains, apparently to Wady 
Budhwah, we soon began to ascend again gradually 
on a course S.E. by S., passing by a small spring of 
good water, beyond which the valley opens by 
degrees, and its bottom becomes less uneven. Here 
the interior and loftier peaks of the great circle of 



MOUNT SINAI. 251 

Sinai began to open upon us, black, rugged, de- 
solate summits ; and as we advance, the dark and 
frowning front of Sinai itself (the present Horeb of 
the monks) began to appear. We were still gra- 
dually ascending, and the valleys gradually opening, 
but as yet all was a naked desert. Afterwards a few 
shrubs were sprinkled about, and a small encamp- 
ment of black tents was seen on our right, with 
camels and goats browsing, and a few donkeys be- 
longing to the convent. The scenery through which 
we now passed reminded me strongly of the moun- 
tain around the Mer de Glace in Switzerland. I had 
never seen a spot more wild and desolate. 

As we advanced, the valley still opened wider 
and wider, with a gentle ascent, and became full of 
shrubs and tufts of herbs, shut in on each side by 
lofty granite ridges with rugged, shattered peaks a 
thousand feet high, while the face of Horeb rose 
directly before us. Both my companion and myself 
involuntarily exclaimed, ' Here is room enough for 
a large encampment !' Beaching the top of the 
ascent, or water-shed, a fine broad plain lay before 
us, sloping down gently towards the S.S.E., enclosed 
by rugged and venerable mountains of dark granite, 
stern, naked, splintered peaks and ridges, of inde- 
scribable grandeur, and terminated at the distance 
of more than a mile by the bold and awful front of 
Horeb, rising perpendicularly in frowning majesty 
from twelve to fifteen hundred feet in height. It was 
a scene of solemn grandeur, wholly unexpected, and 
such as we had never seen ; and the associations 
which at the moment rushed upon our minds were 



252 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

almost overwhelming. As we went on, new points 
of interest were continually opening to our view. 
On the left of Horeb a deep and narrow valley runs 
up S.S.E. between lofty walls of rock, as if in con- 
tinuation of the S.E. corner of the plain. In this 
valley, at the distance of nearly a mile from the 
plain, stands the convent, and the deep verdure of 
its fruit trees and cypresses is seen as the traveller 
approaches — an oasis of beauty amid scenes of the 
sternest desolation. At the S.W. corner of the plain 
the cliffs also retreat, and form a recess or open 
place extending from the plain westward for some 
distance. From this recess there runs up a similar 
narrow valley on the west of Horeb, called El-Leja, 
parallel to that in which the convent stands, and in 
it is the deserted convent El-Arab'in, with a garden 
of olive and other fruit trees not visible from the 
plain. A third garden lies at the mouth of El-Leja, 
and a fourth further west in the recess just men- 
tioned. The whole plain is called Wady-er-Bahah ; 
and the valley of the convent is known to the Arabs 
as Wady Shu'eib, that is, the vale of Jethro. Still 
advancing, the front of Horeb rose like a wall before 
us ; and one can approach quite to the foot and 
touch the mount. Directly before its base is the 
deep bed of a torrent, by which in the rainy season 
the waters of El-Leja and the mountains around 
the recess pass down eastward across the plain. 
As we crossed it our feelings were strongly affected 
at finding here so unexpectedly a spot so entirely 
adapted to the Scriptural account of the giving of 
the Law. No traveller has described this plain, nor 



MOUNT SINAI. 253 

even mentioned it, except in a slight and general 
manner, probably because the most have reached 
the convent by another route without passing it, 
and perhaps, too, because neither the highest point 
of Mount Sinai (now called Jabel Musa), nor the 
still loftier summit of St. Catherine, is visible from 
any part of it. 

As we approached the mountain our head Arab, 
Besharah, became evidently quite excited. He 
prayed that our pilgrimage might be accepted, and 
bring rain, and with great earnestness besought that 
when we ascended the mountain we would open a 
certain window in the chapel there, towards the 
south, which, he said, would certainly cause rain to 
fall. He also entreated, almost with tears, that we 
would induce the monks to have compassion on the 
people, and say prayers as they ought to do for rain. 
When told that God alone could send rain, and they 
should look to Him for it, he replied, * Yes, but the 
monks have the book of prayer for it ; do persuade 
them to use it as they ought.' There was an ear- 
nestness in his manner which was very affecting. 
From the Wady-esh-Sheikh to the convent is a dis- 
tance of twenty-five minutes by a difficult path 
along the rocky bed of the narrow valley. We had 
come on in advance of the loaded camels, and 
reached the convent at half-past five o'clock. Under 
the entrance were many Arabs in high clamor, serfs 
of the convent, who were receiving a distribution of 
some kind of provision from above ; we did not learn 
what. The only regular entrance at present is by a 
door, nearly thirty feet (or more exactly twenty- 



254 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

eight feet nine inches) from the ground, the great 
door having been walled up for more than a century. 
On making known our arrival, a cord was let down 
with a demand for our letters, and we sent up the 
one we had received from the branch convent in 
Cairo. This proving satisfactory, a rope was let 
down for us, in which seating ourselves, we were 
hoisted up one by one by a windlass within to the 
level of the floor, and then pulled in by the hand. 
The superior himself — a mild-looking old man with 
a long white beard — received us with an embrace 
and a kiss, and conducted us to the strangers 1 rooms. 
While these were preparing, we seated ourselves in 
the adjacent piazza upon antique chairs of various 
forms, which have doubtless come down through 
many centuries, and had a few moments of quiet to 
ourselves in which to collect our thoughts. I was 
affected by the strangeness and overpowering gran- 
deur of the scene around us ; and it was for some 
time difficult to realize that we were now actually 
within the very precincts of that Sinai on which 
from earliest childhood I had thought and read with 
so much wonder. Yet, when at length the impres- 
sion came with its full force upon my mind, although 
not given to the melting mood, I could not refrain 
from bursting into tears. 

We were soon put in possession of our rooms, 
and greeted with kindness by the monks and attend- 
ants. . . . Here all travellers have lodged who have 
visited the convent for many generations, but they 
have left no memorials behind except in recent 
years. . . . The garden was now suffering from 



MOUNT SINAI. 255 

drought, but it looked beautifully verdant in con- 
trast with the stern desolation that reigns all around. 
Besides the tall dark cypresses which are seen from 
afar, it contains mostly fruit trees, few vegetables 
being cultivated in it. Indeed the number and 
variety of fruit trees is surprising, and testifies to 
the fine temperature and vivifying power of the 
climate, provided there be a supply of w r ater. The 
almond-trees are very large, and had been long out 
of blossom. The apricot trees were also large, and 
like the apple-trees, were now in full bloom. There 
were also pears, pomegranates, figs, quinces, mul- 
berries, olives, and many vines, besides other trees 
and shrubs in great variety. The fruit produced is 
said to be excellent. 

The name of Sinai is now given by the Chris- 
tians in a general way to this whole cluster of 
mountains. The peak of Jebel Miisa has commonly 
been regarded as the summit of Mount Sinai, the 
place where the Law was given. . . . We measured 
across the plain, where we stood, along the water- 
shed, and found the breadth to be at that point 2700 
English feet or 900 yards, though in some parts it 
is wider. The distance to the base of Horeb, mea- 
sured in like manner, was 7000 feet, or 2333 yards. 
The northern slope of the plain, north of which we 
stood, we judged to be somewhat less than a mile in 
length by one-third of a mile in breadth. We may, 
therefore, fairly estimate the whole plain at two 
geographical miles long, and ranging in breadth 
from one-third to two-thirds of a mile, or as equi- 
valent to a surface of at least one square mile. This 



256 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

space is nearly doubled by a recess on the west, and 
by the broad and level area of Wady-esh-Sheikh on 
the east, which issues at right angles to the plain, 
and is equally in view of the front and summit of the 
present Horeb. 

The examination of this afternoon convinced us 
that here was space enough to satisfy all the requi- 
sitions of the Scriptural narrative, so far as it relates 
to the assembling of the congregation to receive the 
Law. Here, too, one can see the fitness of the 
injunction to set bounds around the mount that 
neither man nor beast might approach too near. 
The encampment before the mount, as has been 
before suggested, might not improbably include 
only the head-quarters of Moses and the Elders, and 
of a portion of the people, while the remainder, 
with their flocks, were scattered in the adjacent 
valleys. 

E. Robinson. D.D., Biblical Researches in Palestine and the 
adjacent regions. 



XXI. 

GUNGOOTREE, THE SACRED SOURCE 

OF THE GANGES. 

BY EMMA ROBERTS. 

Having recovered from the fatigues and bruises 
attendant on our journey to the source of the 
Jumna, to the great dismay of a portion of our 
followers, we determined to proceed to Gungootree, 
whence the sacred river Ganges takes its rise. The 
nearest route from Kursalee to Gungootree may be 
traversed in four days, but the natives always en- 
deavor to dissuade travellers from taking it at any 
season of the year, recommending in preference a 
lower, more circuitous, and therefore longer way. 
The more direct road leads over a great arm of the 
Bundurpooch mountain which separates the valleys, 
or rather channels through which the sacred rivers 
hurry from their icy birthplace. The greater part 
of this tract is desert and uninhabited, conducting 
the wayfarer through regions of rock and snow, 
destitute of the dwellings of man, or of supplies for 
his use ; there is danger also that fuel niay be want- 
ing for that necessary solace to the weary, a blazing 
fire ; while the necessity of dispensing with every- 



258 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

thing like superfluous baggage must oblige the party 
to rest at night in caves and clefts of the rocks. 

Amidst the most formidable evils reported ot this 
route is the bis-ka-kowa, or poisonous wind, said to 
blow over the highest ridge, and to exhale from 
noxious plants on the borders — a very natural sup- 
position among a race of people ignorant of the 
effects produced on the atmosphere at so great an 
elevation. Yielding to the universal clamor, we 
consented to take the longer and safer path, but 
some friends who were obliged to forego the journey 
to Grungootree crossed into the valley of the Ganges 
by a very difficult and romantic route. After part- 
ing company at Banass, they descended to the banks 
of the Bhim, a roaring torrent, rushing beneath pre- 
cipices upwards of 2000 perpendicular feet from the 
river; the eagles wheeling through the sky from 
their eyries near the summit, appearing not larger 
than crows. The ascent then led over a mountain 
covered with cedars, a noble forest, not uncheerful, 
though marked with sombre grandeur. 

The next day's march conducted the party along 
the banks of a torrent which poured down the face 
of a mountain from a bed of snow near its summit. 
The day was cold, the ground hard with frost, but 
the air bracing, and the scenery wild and magni- 
ficent. A long and toilsome ascent over Unchi- 
ghati followed ; scrambling up the bed of a stream 
over rough stones, rendered slippery from being 
cased in ice, they reached the limit of the cedar 
forest, and subsequently came to birch and small 
rhododendrons. The scene then assumed a very 



GUNGOOTBEE. 



259 



wintry aspect, and soon everything like foliage was 
left behind. Attaining the crest of the pass, which 
was covered with snow, and at an elevation of some 
hundred feet above the limit of the forest, on look- 
ing back to Bundurpooch, Duti Manji, and Ba- 
chuncha peak and ridge, few scenes of more sublime 
grandeur could be found throughout the whole ol 




View in the Himalayas. 



these stupendous regions. The prospect of range 
after range of the south and east was very extensive ; 
an ocean of ridges in one wide amphitheatre, closed 
in by the line of the snowy mountains resting their 
fantastic peaks against the dark blue sky. Below 
the course of the Bhagirati could be traced, which, 
after issuing from its gigantic bed of snow, rejoicing 



260 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

in its escape from the wintry mountains, and their 
rugged and awful approaches, flows in tranquil 
beauty through a peaceful valley. In descending 
the southeast side of the pass, the birch which had 
clothed the previous path gave place to pines and 
evergreen oaks, which grew in great abundance in 
advance of the cedar ; the rhododendron, which near 
the crest was merely a creeper, became a tree, a 
change in the nature of vegetation marking the 
different heights, which is exceedingly interesting to 
the traveller. 

The descent of this mountain to Nemgang was 
long and painful, and to Europeans a new route, the 
generality of travellers crossing the ridge from the 
Jumna to the Ganges, either higher up or lower 
down ; but the next day's march compensated for 
all the fatigue incurred in its approach. Descending 
to the Bini-ke-Garh, a torrent rushing down a high 
ridge to the northward, the glen which it watered 
proved of surpassing beauty ; nothing could exceed 
the loveliness of the foliage which clothed this 
summer valley, or rather vista ; for, opening on a 
view of the precipitous heights of the Unchi-Ghati, 
it contrasted its romantic attractions with the sub- 
lime features of the mountains beyond. Beaching 
the junction of the Bini and the Bhagirati, the holy 
name given to the sacred river, the travellers found 
the Ganges a noble stream, much wider and deeper 
than the Jumna, at the same distance from its 
source, but not so tumultuous. 

Descending to Nangang by a different route to 
that already mentioned, we also were compelled to 



GUNGOOTREE. 261 

encounter many difficulties ; the prospects, however, 
repaid them. Equally grand, though different in 
character to those last described, at a very consider- 
able depth below, we looked upon a cultivated 
scene — the hanging terraces common to these hills, 
waving with grain, and watered by winding streams, 
and running along the base of high woody trees. 
Beyond, again, were the eternal mountains in all 
their varieties ; snow resting on the crests of some, 
others majestically grouped with venerable timber, 
and others bleak, bare, and barren, rising in frown- 
ing majesty from the green and sunny slopes which 
smiled below. Between these different ranges ran 
deep ravines, dark with impenetrable forests, ren- 
dered more savage by the awful music of the torrents 
roaring through their fastnesses, while presently 
their streams issuing forth into open day, were seen 
winding round green spots bright with fruit-trees. 
Such, or nearly such, for every traveller sees them 
under a different medium, were the prospects which 
beguiled us as we slipped and slid down the steep 
side of the mountain-pass. Nangang formed our 
halting-place ; several days' march still lay before 
us, and there were more mountains to climb and 
more forests to thread. We now observed a diversity 
in the timber, chestnuts of magnificent growth being 
the prevailing tree. Our sportsmen found plenty 
of game : the monah, the feathered wonder of the 
Himalaya, and other varieties of the pheasant tribe, 
peopled these vast solitudes, and paid tribute to the 
guns of the invading strangers. 

We met with some delightful halting-places on 



262 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

the line of march, grassy terraces, carpeted with 
strawberry and wild Howers, where the cowslip, the 
primrose, and the buttercup, brought the pranked- 
out fields of our native country strongly to the mind. 
Many of the travellers in the Himalaya are moved 
even to rapture at the sight of the first daisy which 
springs spontaneously in their path ; as an exotic in 
some garden of the plains it excites deep emotion ; 
but growing wild, spangling the meadow-grass with 
its silvery stars, it becomes infinitely more interest- 
ing ; and the home-sick, pining exile will often 
gather its earliest encountered blossom weeping. 

Leaving this luxuriant vegetation, we arrived 
at a wild spot, the summit of a ridge of peaks 
covered with snow ; and though the prospect was 
more circumscribed, and all of a greater sameness, 
we enjoyed it amazingly. We seemed to be hemmed 
in on all sides with thick-ribbed ice, transported to 
antarctic snows, imprisoned amid icebergs, vast, 
freezing, and impassable. Presently, however, we 
emerged, and descending through the snow, reached 
the boundary-line between the districts of the Jumna 
and the Ganges. The extreme limits of these river- 
territories were marked in the manner usually em- 
ployed in rude and desolate places, by heaps of 
stone, — many raised by Europeans, — who thus com- 
memorate their pilgrimage. These cairns being 
destitute of inscriptions, it is impossible to say who 
the adventurous architects were, since no European 
name has any chance of being retained in its primi- 
tive form by a native. 

The next point of great interest is the summit 



GUNGOOTREE. 263 

of a ridge, whence the first view of the Ganges is 
obtained, a sight which never fails to raise the droop- 
ing spirits of the Hindoo followers, and which excites 
no small degree of enthusiasm in the breast* of the 
Christian travellers. • The sacred river, as seen from 
this height, flows in a dark, rapid, and broad stream, 
and, though at no great apparent distance, must 
still be reached by more than one toilsome march. 
From a height about two miles from Gungootree, 
the first glimpse, and that a partial one, is obtain- 
able of that holy place, which lies sequestered in a 
glen of the deepest solitude, lonely, and almost in- 
accessible, for few there are who could persevere in 
surmounting the diinculties of the approach. Con- 
siderable distances must be traversed over project- 
ing masses of rough stones, flinty, pointed, and un- 
certain, many being loose, and threatening to roll 
over the enterprising individual who attempts the 
rugged way. Sometimes the face of the rock must 
be climbed from cliff to cliff ; at others, where there 
is no resting-place for hand or foot, ladders are 
placed in aid of the ascent ; while awful chasms be- 
tween are passed on some frail spar flung across. 
These horrid rocks would seem indeed to form in- 
vincible barriers to the approach of the holy place, 
but religious enthusiasm on the one hand, and scien- 
tific research, stimulated by curiosity, on the other, 
render the barriers inadequate for resisting the in- 
vasions of man. The difficult nature of the access, 
however, prevents the concourse of pilgrims who 
resort to more easily attainable places esteemed 
sacred on this hallowed river. 



264 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

The grandeur of the scene which opened upon 
us, as we at length stood upon the threshold 
of Gungootree, cannot be described in words. 
Rocks were piled upon rocks in awful majesty, 
all shivered into points, which rise one upon 
another in splendid confusion, enclosing a glen of 
the wildest nature, where the Ganges, beautiful 
in every haunt, from its infancy to its final junction 
with the ocean, pours its shallow waters over a bed 
of shingle, diversified by jutting rocks, and every 
leaf shadowed by the splendid foliage of some fine 
old trees. The devotee who undoubtingly believes 
that every step he takes towards the source of that 
holy river, which, from his infancy, he has been 
taught to look upon as a deity, will lead him into 
beatitude, is content to seek its origin at Gungoo- 
tree, but the real source of the sacred stream lies 
still higher, in more inaccessible solitudes ; and it 
was reserved for the ardor of those who measured 
the altitude of the highest peaks, and penetrated to 
the utmost limits of man's dominion, to trace the 
exact birthplace of the holy river. Captains Hodg- 
son and Herbert, in 1818, found at the height of 
13,800 feet above the sea-level, the Bhagarati, or 
true Ganges, issuing from beneath a low arch at the 
base of a vast mass of frozen snow, nearly three hun- 
dred feet in height, and composed of different layers, 
each several feet in thickness, and, in all probability, 
the accumulation of ages. Neither here, nor at 
Gungootree, is there anything resembling a cow's 
mouth to support the popular fallacy, which must 
have been invented by persons utterly unacquainted 




GUNGQOTREE, TUB HIMALAYAS. 



GUNGOOTKEE. 265 

with the true features of the sceue in which the 
sacred river gladdens earth with its ever-bounteous 
waters. 

A pilgrimage to Gungootree is accounted one oi 
the most meritorious actions which a Hindoo can 
perform ; and in commemoration of his visit to this 
holy place, a Ghoorka chieftain has left a memorial 
of his conquests and his piety, in a small pagoda, 
erected in honor of the goddess, on a platform of 
rock, about twenty feet higher than the bed of the 
river. The Brahmins who have the care of this 
temple are accommodated with habitations in its close 
vicinity ; there are a few sheds for the temporary 
residence of pilgrims, many of whom, however, are 
content with such shelter as the neighboring caves 
can afford. The usual ceremonies of bathing, pray- 
ing, and marking the forehead, were gone through 
at this place, the officrating Brahmin taking care 
that the fees should be duly paid. Notwithstanding 
the stern and sullen nature of his retreat at some 
periods of the year, he may be said to lead a busy life, 
conversing with devout pilgrims and carriers of water 
to distant lands who require his seal to authenticate 
their burdens ; and making the most out of all his 
visitors, whatever their country or their creed may 
be. Though dispensing with his orisons we paid 
him for his services, and it seemed a matter of in- 
difference to him on what account he received the 
cash. 

E. Robeets, Hindostan, the shores of the Bed Sea, and the Himalaya 
Mountains. 



XXII. 

ADAM'S PEAK, CEYLON. 

ASCENT BY DR. DAVY, 1817. 

The first excursion which I made into the interior 
after ray arrival in Ceylon, was to Adam's Peak, the 
highest mountain in the island, and one that can- 
not fail to excite the interest of the traveller ; its 
name being known, and its fame spread all over the 
world, and being an object of veneration almost 
equally to the Buddhist and the Hindoo, to the 
Mahometan and the nominal Christian of India, 
each of whom considers it a sacred mountain, and 
has attached to it some superstitious tale. 

On the 15th of April, 1817, at dawn, I set out 
from Colombo in company with my friends, the Rev. 
G. Bisset, William Granville, Esq., and Mr. Moon : 
on the 17th we reached Ratnapoora, and on the' 
evening of the 19th, the summit of the Peak, dis- 
tant from Colombo only sixty-six miles. 

Our mode of travelling varied with the nature 
of the road and country. The first sixteen miles we 
went expeditiously in gigs, over an excellent road, 
through a populous country, delightfully shaded the 



adam's peak, ceylon. 267 

greater part of the way by the rich and beautiful 
foliage of extensive groves of cocoa-nut trees, which 
form a deep belt round the southwest part of the 
island. 

On leaving the great maritime road at Pantara 
to strike into the interior, we exchanged our gigs 
for the indolent Indian vehicles, palanqueens, in 
which we were carried as far as Ratnapoora, in 
Saffragan, about forty-three miles from Colombo, 
over a pretty good new road, through a country low 
and yet hilly, in general overgrown with wood, very 
thinly inhabited (having been a border region) and 
little cultivated ; and excepting here and there, ex- 
hibiting few objects and little scenery of an interest- 
ing nature. At Horima, where we slept the first 
night in our palanqueens, we noticed the remains of 
a Hindoo building of the simplest kind of architec- 
ture, the style of which has already been alluded to. 
The next morning at dawn, just before sunrise, from 
a hill over which we were passing, we had a splendid 
dew of a tropical wilderness ; hills, dales and plains, 
all luxuriantly wooded, bounded by blue mountains, 
fleecy clouds resting on the low ground, and a bril- 
liant sky overhead. The charms of the prospect 
were heightened by the coolness and freshness of the 
air, and by the animation of the scene, produced 
by the notes of a variety of birds, some of them 
reminding one of the blackbird, others of the song 
of the thrush, and others of that of the red-breast ; 
with which were mixed the harsh cries of the wild 
peacock, jungle-fowl and parrot, the soft cooing of 
doves, and the shrill sounds of innumerable insects. 



268 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

.... Though not eight miles from. Adam's Peak, the 
river here is hardly fifty feet above the level of the 

sea At Ratnapoora we left our palanqueens aud 

proceeded towards the mountains, each in a chair 
lashed to two bamboos, and carried on men's shoul- 
ders. In this manner we travelled about nine miles 
as far as Palabatula Four miles from Ratna- 
poora we stopped to breakfast at Gillemalle, a beau- 
tiful spot The latter half of the way is almost 

one continued ascent by a narrow, rocky path, shaded 
either by an impenetrable jungle, or by trees so 
covered with parasitical plants, that each resembles 
a bower. This kind of luxuriant vegetation is pro- 
bably connected with the dampness of the climate, 
and the frequent and heavy showers which fall in 
this part of the country. Owing to the same cause, 
the country is infested with leeches, from which the 
naked legs of our bearers suffered not a little, aud 
from which we did not escape completely. Pataba- 
tula is the last inhabited station on the peak. We 
gladly sought shelter there from a heavy thunder- 
storm which had deluged us with rain for more than 
two hours. There is a little Wilhare at this spot, 
and two open amblams, or rest-houses, one small, 
where we took up our quarters, and the other pretty 
large, where we found assembled at least two hun- 
dred pilgrims of both sexes and of all ages, either 
going to, or returning from the Peak. 

At dawn, the next morning, we started for the 
summit on foot, the mountain-path we had to ascend 

admitting of no other mode of travelling After 

toiling up this steep, gloomy path about two miles, 



adam's peak, ceylon. 269 

we came to a halting-place on a little platform 
above a precipice, from which we had a prospect of 
the country below, that was at once grand and 
beautiful. 

About h.dlf-vz,j up the mountain we crossed a 
small torrent that flows over an immense tabular 
mass of rock ; and about a mile further, to the bed 
of a much larger torrent, the Setagongola, which 
may be considered the parent stream of the Kalu- 
ganga. This river scene was a very impressive 
one, and extremely picturesque ; the torrent, with 
fine effect, rushed from a. wooded height down a 
channel obstructed by great masses of rock, on 
which were assembled numerous groups of pilgrims 
variously employed, some bathing, some making a 
frugal repast on cold rice, and others resting them- 
selves lying at full length, or sitting cross-legged in 
the Indian fashion, chewing betel. About half a 
mile from the river we crossed a little glen. The 
descent, which is very steep, was facilitated in the 
most difficult parts by rude wooden ladders. The 
opposite ascent was in appearance of a much more 
formidable nature, but the danger is removed by 
steps having been cut in the rock. About half-way 
up the rock, on the left-hand side, is the figure of a 
man rudely cut, and an inscription in Singalese, 
both commemorating the being by whom the steps 
had been made. From the top of this bare rock we 
were once more gratified with an extensive view. A 
thunderstorm was gathering ; the scene was magni- 
ficent and awful, and of a nature to baffle descrip- 
tion Yery soon after leaving the rock, the storm 



270 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

commenced, attended with very heavy rain, and with 
thunder and lightning extremely loud and vivid. 
There being no shelter, it was useless to halt ; we 
continued ascending without intermission, the diffi- 
culty of the path increasing with the height. 

The storm lasted till about half-past two, when 
we had reached a little flat, covered with stunted 
wood. Whilst we stopped here to rest ourselves for 
a few minutes under a rude shed made for the use 
of pilgrims, the weather rapidly improved ; the rain 
nearly ceased, the thunder was to be heard only 
rolling at a distance, the mists and clouds were dis- 
persing, and we presently had the pleasure of seeing 
the object of our toil immediately above us, the 
Peak, of a conical form, rising rapidly and majesti- 
cally to a point. 

We arrived at the top of the mountain a lit- 
tle after three o'clock. The rain was over, the air 
clear, and the sun shining. The magnificent views of 
the surrounding scenery amply repaid us for a labo- 
rious march, and all the difficulties we had to contend 
with. 

From the surrounding scenery our curiosity 
soon led us to examine the summit of the mountain. 
It is very small ; according to a measurement m ade 
by Lieut. Malcolm (the first European who ascended 
the Peak), its area is seventy-four feet by twenty- 
four. It is surrounded by a stone wall five feet high, 
built in some places on the brink of the precipice. 
The apex of the mountain is a rock, which stands 
in the middle of the enclosure, about six or eight 
feet above the level ground. On the top is the 



adam's peak, ceylon. 271 

object of worship of the natives, the Sree-pada, the 
sacred impression, as they imagine, of the foot of 
Boodhoo, which he stamped on his first visit to the 
island. It is a superficial hollow, five feet three 
inches and three quarters long, and between two feet 
seven inches and two feet five inches wide. It is 
ornamented with a margin of brass, studded with a 
few gems, of little value ; it is covered with a roof, 
which is fastened to the rock by four iron chains, 
and supported by four pillars ; and it is surrounded 
by a low wall. The roof was lined with colored 
cloths ; and its margin being decked with flowers and 
streamers, it made a very gay appearance. The 
cavity certainly bears a coarse resemblance to the 
figure of the human foot. 

We passed the night on the mountains ; and it 
was the first time since I had entered the tropics 
that I had occasion to complain of cold. The next 
morning before sunrise, we were awoke by the shouts 
of a party of pilgrims just arrived. They consisted 
of several men and women, all native Singalese, 
neatly dressed in clean clothes. They immediately 
proceeded to their devotions. A priest, in his yellow 
robes, stood on the rock close to the impression of 
the foot, with his face to the people, who had ranged 
themselves in a row below, some on their knees, 
with their hands uplifted and joined palm to palm, 
and others bending forward with their hands in the 
same attitude of devotion. The priest, in a loud, 
clear voice, sentence by sentence, recited the articles 
of their religious faith and duties, and, in response, 
they repeated the same after him. When he had 



272 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

finished, they raised a loud shout, and he retiring, 
they went through the same ceremony by themselves 
with one of the party for their leader. 

An interesting scene followed this ; wives affec- 
tionately and respectfully saluted their husbands, 
and children their parents, and friends one another. 
An old grey-headed woman first made her salams to 
a really venerable old man ; she was moved to tears 
and almost kissed his feet ; he affectionately raised 
her up. Several middle-aged men then salamed 
the patriarchal pair ; these men were salamed in re- 
turn by still younger men, who had first paid their 
respect to the old people ; and, lastly, those nearly 
of the same standing slightly salamed each other, 
and exchanged betel leaves. The intention of these 
salutations, I was informed, was of a moral kind, to 
confirm the ties of kindred, to strengthen family love 
and friendship, and remove animosities. The Ma- 
hometans, there is good reason to believe, first as- 
signed the name to this mountain by which it is 
generally known amongst Europeans. The moor- 
men of Ceylon still call it Adam Malay ; they say 
that Adam, when turned out of Paradise, lamented 
his offence on the summit of the Peak standing on 
one foot (of which the impression remains) until he 
was pardoned by God. 

From Db. Davy's Interior of Ceylon. 



xxrnr. 

ASCENT OF THE GUNUNG-TALANG, 
SUMATRA. 

A chain of mountains rims through the whole 
length of the island of Sumatra ; and the ranges are, 
in many places, double and treble. Some near the 
equator attain the height of 15,000 feet ; and among 
them are extensive plains of a great elevation. The 
mountains are mostly on the western side. One, 
which is an active volcano, is known in the island 
under the name of Scelassie. It is up wards of 9000 
feet above the level of the sea, and was in a state of 
eruption in the month of October 1845. Several 
Dutchmen were not afraid to make the ascent even 
during this period. Some extracts are given from 
the narrative of one of them. 

On our way from Solok to Mocara Pamy, we 
had perceived from time to time, from the top of 
the hills, columns of smoke rising from the Scelassie ; 
and more than once this sight had awakened in us a 
desire to visit this mountain. We made our wishes 
known to the overseer, Mr. Yan der Yen, who re- 
ceived us cordially, and fully approved of the pro- 



274 



MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 



ject. He himself superintended the preparations, 
and the very next day, October the 21st, we were 
on horseback by five o'clock in the morning. 

Scarcely had we been on the road a quarter of 
an hour, when we came to a deep cutting covere d 




The Soelassie, Sumatra. 



with loose flints which made the road so dangerous 
that we were obliged to descend and lead our horses. 
We crossed a little bamboo bridge without any pa- 
rapet, and after having climbed up a steep slope we 
were rewarded for our trouble by a most magnificent 



THE GUNUNG-TALANG, 275 

view. And in the distance we saw the Scelassie, 
which continued to throw out its columns of 
smoke. 

Near Batol-Bandjak, where we stopped, we saw 
in abundance these trachyle flints. The inhabitants 
made us visit several mineral springs in the neigh- 
borhood ; and we found that the water was bitter 
and sulphurous. 

In the evening we reached the Batol-Bedjand- 
jang at the foot of the volcano. We resumed our 
march at five o'clock in the morning in the midst of 
mist and very disagreeable fine rain. The ther- 
mometer pointed at 68°. And we had to climb suc- 
cessively three sufficiently steep ridges of more than 
600 feet in height each. At the top of the last one, 
the view extended over a plateau covered with a rich 
vegetation of trees and shrubs, at the extremity of 
which we reached a new ascent of about 1300 feet. 
The soil, which is composed of a mixture of sul- 
phurous and calcareous earth, had become hot ; and 
here and there rose little clouds of smoke from the 
bottom of the crevasses. 

It was eleven o'clock when we took a moment's 
repose at the bottom of the highest peak which still 
stood above us, and towered about 300 feet above 
our heads. And here, although a strong smell of 
sulphur indicated the neighborhood of the crater 
and the end of our journey, yet the activity of the 
volcano also became more evident. In the midst 
of the blocks of old lava which surrounded us, 
the vegetation had diminished, the brambles had 
dried up, and the trunks of the trees were black- 



276 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

ened and burnt. We rapidly cleared the space 
which remained, and arrived at a crevasse situated 
between the two summits, from one of which 
the crater was to be seen in all its imposing gran- 
deur. 

What a majestic spectacle it was ! Before us 
stood open the old crater by which all the activity of 
the volcano had developed itself for ages past, and 
further off the one then in a state of eruption. It 
appeared like a lake of recent formation environed 
by flames and clouds of smoke. The dead silence 
which reigned around us was only interrupted by the 
subterranean noises of the volcanoes. 

On the southwest, at about 360 feet from the 
summit, the furnace was fully at work. The western 
side was formed by a vertical wall over which a part 
of the lava escaped. On the south side, a sloping 
ridge is lost in depths which the eye cannot pene- 
trate. As far as can be seen, crevasses appeared 
from whence escaped clouds of smoke. 

To get a nearer view of the lake, we descended the 
sloping sides, helping ourselves as much by our 
hands as by our feet, and never letting go our hold 
on one block of rocks until we could fix ourselves 
firmly on another. So we were witnesses of what 
was going on within ; and we heard a continuous 
noise resembling that made by the paddle-wheels of 
many steamboats in motion. 

Mr. Van der Yen here ran into the greatest 
danger. Having gone quite close to an opening, the 
hot lava gave way under his feet ; but happily it 
rested on a mass which was already hardened ; so 



THE GUNUNG-TALANG. 277 

that he had time to jump off backwards. The heat 
did not permit us to remain long in the crater ; we 
were obliged to abandon it hastily in order to visit 
the little sulphur lake which was under the ridge 
on to which we had climbed. This lake, which is 
of a rounded form, is about 160 feet in diameter. 
Three of us descended an almost vertical wall, of 
perhaps twenty-two feet high, down to a quantity of 
boiling water. Clinging with one hand to the cre- 
vasses they could with the other get out some spoon- 
fuls ; but the strong smell of sulphur in this water 
obliged them to get up again very quickly. 

We then recrossed the plateau to the point where 
we had commenced our examination in order to see 
about preparing a convenient lodging-place for the 
night. By ten o'clock in the evening we were 
wrapped in our cloaks and seeking to get some sleep 
on our stony beds when the rain came on again with 
great violence. Clouds from whence proceeded such 
hghtning as illuminated the heavens succeeded each 
other in rapid succession ; and three times our tent 
was nearly carried away. The water streamed in 
upon us ; and we trembled with cold. The wind also 
put out our lights ; but by the illumination of the 
lightning we managed after many efforts to fix our 
tent firmly; and then under its feeble shelter we 
waited for the day. 

We had struggled for some hours against the 
unchained elements, and their fury might, for aught 
we knew, have been prolonged ; so it was a great 
relief to us in the morning to see the sky become 
perfectly pure and cloudless before we set out on 



278 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

our return. "We descended by the eastern side, 
whose slopes were less dangerous, right down to the 
bottom of the extinct crater, and up again on the 
other side to the summit, from whence we were 
able to enjoy a magnificent view over hills and 
valleys, lakes, rivers, and islands, which were spread 
out beneath our eyes. 

Nouvelles Annales des Voyages. 



XXIV. 

PETER BOTTE, MAURITIUS. 

ASCENT BY CAPTAIN LLOYD, LIEUTS. TAYLOR, 
PHILLPOTTS AND KEPPEL IN 1832. 

You are no doubt aware, from my former letter, 
that the Peter Botte has always been considered 
inaccessible ; and although a tradition exists of a 
man of that name having ascended it and losing 
his life in returning, it is seldom believed, no au- 
thentic account remaining of the fact. A French- 
man, forty years ago, declared that he had got on 
the top by himself, and made a hole in the rock for 
a flag-staff ; and his countrymen naturally believed 
him ; but the value of this assertion may also be 
judged, of by the present narrative. 

The ascent has been frequently attempted, and 
by several people, of late years : once by the officers 
of His Majesty's ship Samarang, who lost their way 
and found themselves separated from the Peter 
Botte itself by a deep cleft in the rock, and in con- 
sequence were compelled to return. Captain Lloyd, 
chief civil engineer, and your old friend Dawkins, 
made the attempt last year, and succeeded in reach- 



280 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

ing a point between the shoulder and the neck, 
where they planted a ladder which did not reach 
half-way up a perpendicular face of rock that ar- 
rested their progress. This was the last attempt. 
Captain .Lloyd was then, however, so convinced of 
the practicability of the undertaking, that he deter- 
mined to repeat the experiment this year, and ac- 
cordingly made all his preparations by the beginning 
of this month. On the 6th he started from town, 
accompanied by Lieut. Phillpotts of the 29th regi- 
ment, Lieut. Keppel, R.N. (my old messmate), and 
myself, whom he asked to join him. He had pre- 
viously sent out two of his overseers with about 
twenty-five Negroes and Sepoy convicts to make all 
necessary preparations. They carried with them a 
sort of tent, and ropes, crow-bars, a portable ladder, 
provisions, and everything we could possibly want 
for three or four days, as we intended to remain on 
the shoulder of the mountain, close to the base of 
Peter Botte, until we either succeeded, or were con- 
vinced of its impossibility. These men had worked 
hard, and on our arriving at the foot of the moun- 
tain we found the tent and all our tools, etc., safely 
lodged on the shoulder of Peter Botte. I may as 
well describe here the appearance of the mountain. 
From most points of view it seems to rise out of the 
range which runs nearly parallel to that part of the 
sea-coast which forms the Bay of Port Louis ; but 
on arriving at its base you find that it is actually 
separated from the rest of the range by a ravine or 
cleft of tremendous depth. Seen from the town (as 
you will perceive by the sketch) it appears a cone 




4«^BA 



PETER BOTTE, MAURITIUS 



PETER BOTTE. 281 

with a large overhanging rock at its summit, but 
so extraordinarily sharp and knife-like is this, in 
common with all the rocks on the island, that when 
seen end on, as the sailors say, it appears nearly 
quite perpendicular. In fact, I have seen it in fifty 
different points of view, and cannot yet assign to it 
any one precise form. But to my tale. 

We dined that evening and slept at the house 
of a Frenchman in the plain below, and rose early 
next morning much exhausted by the attacks of 
bugs. All our preparations being made, we started, 
and a more picturesque line of march I have seldom 
seen. 

Our van was composed of about fifteen or twenty 
Sepoys of every variety of costume, together with a 
few Negroes carrying our food, dry clothes, etc. 
Our path lay up a very steep ravine formed by the 
rains in the wet season, which having loosened all 
the stones, made it anything but pleasant ; those 
below were obliged to keep a bright look out for 
tumbling rocks, and one of these missed Keppel and 
myself by a miracle. From the head of this gorge 
we turned off along the other face of the mountain ; 
and it would have been a fine subject for a picture, 
to look up from the ravine below and see the long 
string slowly picking their ' kittle ' footsteps along 
a ledge not anywhere a foot broad ; yet these mon- 
keys carried their loads full four hundred yards along 
this face, holding by the shrubs above, while below 
there was nothing but the tops of the forest for more 
than nine hundred feet down the slope. 

On rising to the shoulder a view burst upon us 



282 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

which quite defies my descriptive powers. We stood 
on a little narrow ledge or neck of land, about twenty 
yards in length. On the side which we mounted 
we looked back into the deep wooded gorge we had 
passed up ; while on the opposite side of the neck, 
which was between six and seven feet broad, the 
precipice went sheer down fifteen hundred feet to 
the plain. One extremity of the neck was equally 
precipitous, and the other was bounded by what to 
me was the most magnificent sight I ever saw. A 
narrow, knife-like edge of rock, broken here and 
there by precipitous faces, ran up in a conical form, 
to about 300 or 350 feet above us, and on the very 
pinnacle old ' Peter Botte ' frowned in all his glory. 
I have done several sketches of him, one of which, 
from this point, I send by the same ship as this 
letter. 

After a short rest we proceeded to work. The 
ladder (see sketch) had been left by Lloyd and Daw- 
kins last year. It was about twelve feet high, and 
reached, as you may perceive, about half-way up a 
face of perpendicular rock. The foot, which was 
spiked, rested on a ledge not quite visible in the 
sketch, with barely three inches on each side. A 
grapnel-line had been also left last year, but was 
not used. A Negro of Lloyd's clambered from the 
top of the ladder by the cleft in the face of the rock, 
not trusting his weight to the old and rotten line. 
He carried a small cord round his middle, and it 
was fearful to see the cool, steady way in which he 
climbed, where a single loose stone or false hold must 
have sent him down into the abyss ; however, he 



PETER BOTTE. 283 

fearlessly scrambled away, till at length we heard 
hini halloo from under the neck, ' All right !' These 
Negroes use their feet exactly like monkeys, grasp- 
ing with them every projection almost as firmly as 
with their hands. The line carried up he made 
fast above, and up we went all 'shinned' in suc- 
cession. It was, joking apart, awful work. In 
several places the ridge ran to an edge not a foot 
broad, and I could, as I held on, half-sitting, half- 
kneeling across the ridge, have kicked my right 
shoe down to the plain on one side, and my left into 
the bottom of the ravine on the other. The only 
thing that surprised me was my own steadiness and 
freedom from all giddiness. I had been nervous in 
mounting the ravine in the morning, but gradually 
I got so excited and determined to succeed, that I 
could look down that dizzy height without the 
smallest sensation of swimming in the head ; never- 
theless, I held on uncommonly hard, and felt very 
well satisfied when I was safe under the neck. And 
a more extraordinary situation I never was in. The 
head, which is an enormous mass of rock, about 
thirty-five feet in height, overhangs its base many 
feet on every side. A ledge of tolerably level rock 
runs round three sides of the base, about six feet in 
width, bounded everywhere by the abrupt edge of 
the precipice, except in the spot where it is joined 
by the ridge up which we climbed. In one spot, 
the head, though overhanging its base several feet, 
reaches only perpendicularly over the edge of the 
precipice, and most fortunately it was at the very 
spot where we mounted. Here it was that we 



284 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

reckoned on getting up ; a communication being 
established with the shoulder by a double line of 
ropes, we proceeded to get up the necessary materiel, 
— Lloyd's ladder, additional coils of rope, croAV-bars, 
etc. But now the question, and a puzzler, too, was 
how to get the ladder up against the rock. Lloyd 
had prepared some iron arrows with thongs to fire 
over ; and, having got up a gun, he made a line fast 
round his body, which we all held on, and going 
over the edge of the precipice on the opposite side, 
he leaned back against the line and fired over the 
least projecting part. Had the line broken he would 
have fallen 1800 feet. Twice this failed ; and then 
he had recourse to a large stone with a lead line, 
which swung diagonally, and seemed to be a feasible 
plan ; several times he made beautiful heaves, but 
the provoking line would not catch, and away went 
the stone far below ; till at length Molus, pleased, I 
suppose, with his perseverance, gave us a shift of 
wind for about a minute, and over went the stone, 
and was eagerly seized on the opposite side. 

Hurrah, my lads ! steady's the word ! Three 
lengths of the ladder were put together on the ledge, 
a large line was attached to the one which was over 
the head, and carefully drawn up ; and finally, a 
two-inch rope to the extremity of which we lashed 
the top of our ladder, then lowered it gently over 
the precipice till it hung perpendicularly, and was 
steadied by two Negroes on the ridge below. iC All 
right ; now hoist away !" and up went the ladder, 
till the foot came to the edge of our ledge, where 
it was lashed in firmly to the neck. We then hauled 



PETER BOTTE. 285 

away on the guy to steady it, and made it fast ; a line 
was passed over by the lead-line to hold on, and up 
went Lloyd, screeching and hallooing, and we all 
three scrambled after him. The union-jack and a 
boat-hook were passed up, and old England's flag 
waved freely and gallantly on the redoubted Peter 
Botte. No sooner was it seen flying than the Un- 
daunted, frigate, saluted in the harbor, and the guns 
of our saluting battery replied ; for though our ex- 
pedition had been kept secret until we started, it 
was made known on the morning of our ascent, 
and all hands were on the lookout, as we afterwards 
learnt. We then got a bottle of wine to the top of 
the rock, christened King William's Peak, and drank 
his Majesty's health, hands round the Jack, and 
then Hip ! hip ! hip ! hurrah ! 

I certainly never felt anything like the excite- 
ment of that moment ; even the Negroes down on the 
shoulder took up our hurrahs ; and we could hear 
far below, the faint shouts of the astonished inhabi- 
tants of the plain. We were determined to do 
nothing by halves, and accordingly made prepara- 
tion for sleeping under the neck. After dinner, as 
it was getting dark, I screwed up my nerves and 
climbed up to our queer little nest at the top, fol- 
lowed by Tom Keppel and a Negro, who carried 
some dry wood, and made a fire in a cleft under the 
rock. Lloyd and Phillpotts soon came up, and we 
began to arrange ourselves for the night, each tak- 
ing a glass of brandy to begin with. I had on two 
pairs of trousers, a shooting waistcoat, jacket, and 
large flushing jacket over that, a thick woollen sail- 



286 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

or's cap and two blankets ; and each of us lighted a 
cigar as we seated ourselves to wait for the ap- 
pointed hour for the signal of our success. It was 
a glorious sight to look down from that giddy pinna- 
cle over the whole island, lying so calm and beauti- 
ful in the moonlight, except where the broad, black 
shadows of the other mountains intercepted the 
light. Here and there we could see a light twink- 
ling in the plains, or a fire of some sugar manufac- 
tory ; but not a sound of any sort reached us ex- 
cept an occasional shout from the party down on 
the shoulder (we four being the only ones above). 
At length, in the direction of Port Louis, a bright 
flash was seen, and after a long interval, the sullen 
boom of the evening gun. We then prepared our 
pre-arranged signal ; and whiz went a rocket from 
our nest, lighting up for an instant the peaks of the 
hills below us, and then leaving us in darkness. We 
next burnt a blue light ; and nothing can be con- 
ceived more perfectly beautiful than the broad glare 
against the overhanging rock. The wild-looking 
group we made, in our uncouth habiliments, and the 
narrow ledge on which we stood, were all distinctly 
seen ; while many of the tropical birds, frightened 
at our vagaries, came glancing down in the light, 
and then swooped away, screeching into the gloom 
below, for the gorge on our left was as dark as 
Erebus. We burnt another blue light, and threw 
up two more rockets, when our laboratory being ex- 
hausted, the patient-looking, insulted moon had it 
all her own way again. We now rolled ourselves 
up in our blankets, and having lashed Phillpotts, 



PETER BOTTE. 287 

who was a determined sleep-walker, to Keppel's 
leg, we tried to sleep ; but it blew strong before the 
morning, and was very cold. We drank all our 
brandy, and kept tucking in the blankets the whole 
night without success. At day -break we rose, stiff, 
cold, and hungry, and I shall conclude briefly by 
saying that, after about four or fiye hours' hard 
work, we got a hole mined in the rock, and sunk 
the foot of our twelve-foot ladder deep in this, lash- 
ing a water-barrel, as a landmark, at the top , and, 
above all ; a long staff, with a union-jack flying. We 
then hi turn mounted to the top of the ladder to 
take a last look at a view such as we might never 
see again, and bidding adieu to the scene of our toil 
and triumph, descended the ladder to the neck, and 
casting off the guys and hauling-lines, cut off all 
communication with the top. 

In order to save time and avoid danger, we now 
made fast a line from the neck to the shoulder, as 
tight as possible, and hanging on our traps by means 
of rings, launched them one by one from the top, 
and down they flew, making the line smoke. All 
were thus conveyed safely to the shoulder, except 
one unlucky bag, containing a lot of blankets, my 
spy-glass, and sundry other articles, which not be- 
ing firmly fixed, broke the preventer-line, and took 
its departure down to Pamplemousses. We at 
length descended and reached the shoulder all safe 
and without any accident, except that of the 
blankets, not a rope-yarn being left to show where 
we got up. We then breakfasted, and after a long 
and somewhat troublesome descent, got to the low 



288 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

country, and drove in Lloyd's carriage to town, 
where we were most cordially welcomed by all oul 
countrymen, though I believe we were not quite so 
warmly greeted by the French inhabitants, who are 
now constrained to believe that their countrymeD 
alone did not achieve the feat, and that the British 
ensign has been the first to wave over the redoubta- 
ble Peter Botte. 

Liuet. Taylob, Royal Geographical Society's Transactions. 



XXV. 

THE PEAK OF TENERIFFE. 

ASCENT BY BERTHELOT. 

It was on the 8th of July that I determined to 
climb to the very Peak of Teyde, better known in 
Europe under the name of the Peak of Teneriffe. 
I intended to reach it by the southern slopes ; and 
I knew that before me no one had attempted it on 
that side, because the paths which lead to it are 
almost impracticable ; but then I thought I might 
possibly find there some plants which had escaped 
the learned researches of Broussonnet, and of Ch. 
Smith ; and this hope alone outweighed all the 
obstacles. I was, at this time, at Chasna, a village 
situated in a most picturesque position on the south 
of the peak, and at about 4600 feet above the level 
of the sea, although it was hardly three leagues 
distant from the southern side of the isle. I set 
out from thence at five o'clock in the morning, 
with Mr. Macgregor, then English consul at the 
Canaries, and with two guides, who were to accom- 
pany us. After two hours' march, we arrived at 
the base of the central mountains. The pines 



290 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

whicn covered almost all the land that we had 
crossed, gradually became more rare ; and as we 
advanced into the gorge of Oucanca these beautiful 
trees insensibly disappeared, and were replaced by 
viscous brooms. Oucanca is a place which is 
worthy of a visit ; a volcanic eruption, accompanied 
no doubt by violent commotions, overthrowing the 
base of the central mountains, gave birth to the 
gorge now existing there. The principal crater, 
which is easily recognized, vomits a torrent of vi- 
trified lava which inundates the neighboring places, 
and follows its course towards the coast, traversing 
a space of more than two leagues. The wildness 
of this place is still more increased by the enormous 
rocks which seem to have become detached from the 
neighboring heights. 

Emerging from the gorges of Oucanca, we con- 
tinued to ascend the mountain in front of us ; the 
white heaths, of which we had already found some 
bushes, then showed themselves in greater number, 
and soon extended so as to form a sort of belt of 
vegetation exclusively round the bases of the peak. 

The place at which we had arrived was called 
Degollada de Oucanca. Teneriffe was in front of 
us ; we could already count the torrents of black 
lava which marked its sides ; and we could also see 
all the central mountains of Teneriffe. Indeed it 
is only from this point that a view can be obtained 
which embraces the whole group of these volcanic 
summits. This view is most imposing ; and no de- 
scription can give a just idea of it. These Canadas 
mountains which may probably have once formed a 








: - ,l-!! i-:- ir..;=.-..-h-ii=- iii''ii;-iVii l ,'ili!iii; i i:- J ^ 



THE PEAK OF TENEKIFFE. 291 

perfectly circular chain, present now two great 
passages whose ruinous approaches plainly indicate 
the violent causes which have created them. Their 
high crests rise to more than 9000 feet above the 
level of the ocean ; and all the space enclosed by 
their line of circumvallation round these trachytic 
mountains constitutes one immense crater, whose 
origin was probably prior to that of the peak itself 
which the geologist Escolar called el Tiijo de las 
Ganadas (the son of the Ganadas). It is nearly 
in the middle of this elliptical crater, of which the 
greatest diameter is about five leagues, that the 
Peak rises, still smoking, above all this agitated soil. 
The vast circle which surrounds it is known at 
Teneriffe by the name of the gorges of the Peak, 
{Ganadas del Teyde, or simply Ganadas). 

The path which conducts to the Degollada of 
Oitcanca, in the bottom of the gorges, is a very 
rugged one ; the opposite slope of the mountain is 
almost perpendicular, and presents, in several places, 
precipices which are more than 900 feet deep. 
When we were descending into the interior of the 
Ganadas we could scarcely conceive how we should 
ever arrive there ; but at last we succeeded. The 
level of these gorges is about 9000 feet above the 
sea ; and the Peak rises about 3000 feet above this 
level. We had, on one side, the vast slopes of the 
great cone, and on the other the chain of mountains 
from which we had descended, and whose almost 
perpendicular side served of old as a division to the 
immense boiling crater. Truly an astonishing spec- 
tacle ! If in imagination we go back to the ages 



292 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

of geological disturbance in which this frightful 
volcano was in all its activity we shall not be able 
to think without horror of that flaming gulf of more 
than nine leagues in circumference, and of 900 feet 
in depth. Yet only thus can we form an idea of 
the state of fermentation of this era of incandes- 
cence ; and the formation of the Peak in the middle 
of this gulf will then appear only a secondary phe- 
nomenon. 

After having admired these grand volcanic effects, 
and before we proceeded stiU nearer to the base of 
the Peak, we were obliged to rest ourselves at the 
source of La Piedra, for we were suffocated by the 
heat. In this elevated region, the air is always 
calm and clear, the heavens always of a brilliant 
azure ; and the lightest cloud never comes to break 
its uniformity. The intensity of the solar rays in 
these gorges, their reflection from the layers of 
white gravel stone, their dazzling scintillation on 
the fragments of pumice-stone and obsidian, which 
cover the ground, are so many causes of the high 
temperature. Prom thence you look down on the 
clouds ; and so there are none of those pleasant 
mists which in the lower regions, from time to time 
refresh the atmosphere, moisten the earth, and 
vivify the vegetation. The inhabitant of the plains, 
who crosses this belt, soon feels its influence ; the 
extreme dryness of the air closes the pores, stops 
perspiration, and cracks his skin ; an immoderate 
thirst ceaselessly torments him, and often he seeks 
in vain for some hidden spring which still could 
only quench his thirst for an instant. It is in vain 



THE PEAK OF TENEKIFFE. 293 

also that to avoid the heat of the sun, he tries to 
take refuge under the bushes of broom or the shadow 
of some rock ; the earth everywhere is burning, 
everywhere the heat is insupportable, everywhere 
there reigns this depressing stillness, and he is 
speedily forced to quit the shelter in which no 
breath of air can be felt. 

The source of La Piedra suplies a deliciously 
cool water, to which the goats that are left to 
wander in these gorges, and the bees whose hives 
are placed in its neighborhood, come to quench 
their thirst. A quantity of white broom grows near 
it ; and indeed this useful shrub is the ornament of 
these Canadas. The goats browse, too, on its 
stems, whilst the bees ceaselessly suck the perfumed 
flowers. So, even in the most desert places, Nature 
seems to have provided for the wants of all. With- 
out the broom, which is so abundantly spread over 
this valley, how could these flocks and precious 
swarms subsist ? and yet the latter form one of the 
most important branches of rural economy to the 
inhabitants of the south. 

We now continued our way along the defile of 
Canada Blanca ; and our guides made us after- 
wards cross a torrent of lava which was on our 
right, then another, and soon after a third. They 
call all these places which have been invaded by the 
eruptions mat pais (mauvais pays). In proportion to 
the height we attained, did the obstacles seem to 
become more and more insurmountable ; and every 
minute we had to scramble over the heaps of scoria, 
or the masses of obsidian, which lay in bur way. 



294 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

We had marched for more than two hours over this 
terrible ground, when our guides, who had already 
stopped several times to consult together, began to 
appear uncertain as to the road which they ought 
to follow ; and very soon one of them came to an- 
nounce to us that we had wandered from the right 
way, and that we must give up our enterprise. We 
were not of his mind ; we had gone too far to give 
up ; but somehow we felt that we must get out of 
that particular spot, for night was coming on ; and 
besides this place, to which our ignorant guides had 
conducted us, was a discouraging one. The lava 
heaped up in blocks surrounded us on every side, 
and further on it appeared to be spread in sheets ; 
so we did not know which way to turn. However, 
at all hazards, and by main force Ave managed to 
clear a way for the unfortunate horse that carried 
our provisions, and which had almost been killed 
over and over again during this journey. 

We were nearly worn out with fatigue when we 
arrived at the foot of a mountain of pumice, lean- 
ing against the Peak. On getting clear of this 
pumice our shoes and stockings were in rags ; but 
we had already reached one of the slopes of the 
Peak, and we took courage. I knew this place too, 
for it was the way I had gone in 1825 on my first 
expedition. Certain now of wandering no more, 
we pushed on boldly towards La Estancia, where 
we at length arrived about nine o'clock, in the light 
of a fine moon. 

In spite of the height of this station, we found 
the temperature very supportable ; we breathed the 



THE PEAK OF TENERIFFE. 295 

purest air, and some light gusts of north wind 
brought to us the perfume of the broom. Our 
people had no sooner arrived than they collected a 
quantity of the neighboring bushes, which they 
heaped together and lighted. On this they laid to 
roast an unfortunate goat, which they had killed in 
the Canadas. Soon after supper they grouped 
themselves round the fire ; and each fell asleep in 
his place. As for me, I could not do much in that 
way, for the forced march of the day had heated my 
blood ; and in such a state of irritation one sleeps 
but ill, especially on rocks. The spectacle beneath 
my eyes was likewise too full of attraction for me ; 
the serenity of the heavens, the solitude of the 
place, the strange forms of the rocks heaped around 
our bivouac, and those grand shadows which veiled 
the gorges, out of which we had just come — all 
these things formed an imposing tableau. 

It was three o'clock in the morning when *we 
left the place of our bivouac in order to advance 
towards the point of the Peak. The pathway which 
we followed first, although very much inclined, is 
notwithstanding practicable enough ; but on ap- 
proaching the Altavista, the irregularity of the 
ground became frightful on account of the incum- 
brance of the various matters which the volcano had 
vomited; and one could not walk too cautiously 
amidst so many crevasses and roughnesses. After 
having got clear of this mat pais del Teyde, as our 
guides call it, we arrived at the course of La Ram- 
bleta. Everything seemed to point out the exist- 
ence in this place of a crater anterior to that of the 



296 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

summit of the Peak ; for it is from hence that all 
the numerous torrents of lava flowed which have 
inundated the Canadas. The Teyde or Peak must 
have had intervals of rest ; and it was probably after 
one of them that a new eruption produced the 
Peak. This volcanic head which has covered up 
the old opening really rises in the midst of La 
Rambleta ; now it crowns the mountain, and the 
slopes of its summit which we saw beneath us, were 
lighted up by the rays of the rising sun. Sulphure- 
ous exhalations were already perceptible ; and we 
saw that we were near the end of our enterprise ; 
but this little cone remained still to be ascended, 
and its height was about 440 feet. The pumice- 
stones and the remains of lava rendered this ascent 
very fatiguing ; however, after we had rested and 
taken breath several times we at length reached the 
summit. 

The view which one enjoys at this elevation is 
perfectly grand ; it would be imposible for me to 
give an exact idea of it ; to explain the impression 
which this sublime spectacle produced on me would 
be still more difficult. I felt at the same time a sort 
of giddiness and yet of ecstasy ; I was dumb with 
admiration. From that culminating point whence 
the eruptions burst forth at 12,000 feet above the 
level of the sea, our view embraced seven islands. 
On the east, the high peaks of the grand Canary 
pierced through the clouds that were gilded by the 
rays of the sun ; further on, we discovered Lanze- 
rote and Forteventura ; on the west, the shadow of 
Teneriffe extended in an immense triangle as far as 



THE PEAK OF TENER1FFE. 297 

Gomera ; and not far off were to be seen Palma and 
the isle of Ferro. Below us lay Teneriffe, with the 
whole circuit of its coasts, the different chains of 
its mountains, its plateaux, and its picturesque val- 
leys. Our eyes wandered long over this multitude 
of hollows and risings which the play of the shadows, 
showed to us ; we could have wished to make out 
all the localities, and to recognize every object ; but 
the panorama was too distant for it to be possible to 
seize all its details ; it was but a plan in relief ; we 
could not properly appreciate the heights and the 
distances, for from thence even the hills seemed to 
sink under the Peak. We were almost beside our- 
selves with admiration at the immensity of this pic- 
ture ; but the scene soon changed its aspect. As 
the sun advanced in its course, so the vapors rose 
on all sides ; gradually we saw condensed masses 
floating about, and white clouds forming them- 
selves over the places where a great quantity of ve- 
getation sucked in and constantly reproduced new 
mists. Thus insensibly the whole surface of the 
island became covered, over which we stood as over 
an ocean of clouds. 

Beethelot, Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie. 



XXVI. 

THE SIERBA NEVADA. 

CLIMBING A PRECIPICE. 

Around the head of the lake were crags and pre- 
cipices in singularly forbidding arrangement. As 
we turned thither we saw no possible way of over- 
coming them. At its head the lake lay in an angle of 
the vertical wall, sharp and straight, like the corner 
of a room ; about three hundred feet in height, and 
for two hundred and fifty feet of this a pyramidal 
pile of blue ice rose from the lake, rested against 
the corner, and reached within forty feet of the top. 
Looking into the deep blue water of the. lake, I con- 
cluded that in our exhausted state it was madness 
to attempt to swim it. The only other alternative 
was to scale that slender pyramid of ice and find 
some way to climb the forty feet of smooth wall 
above it. . . . Upon the top of the ice we found 
a narrow, level platform, upon which we stood to- 
gether, resting our backs in the granite corner, and 
looked down the awful pathway of King's Canon, 
until the rest nerved us enough to turn our eyes 
upward at the forty feet of smooth granite which lay 
between us and safety. 






THE SIERRA NEVADA, 299 

Here and there were small projections from its 
surface, little protruding knobs of feldspar, and cre- 
vices riven into its face for a few inches. 

As we tied ourselves together, I told Cotter to 
hold himself in readiness to jump down into one of 
these in case I fell, and started to climb up the wall, 
succeeding quite well for about twenty feet. About 
two feet above my hands was a crack, which, if my 
arms had been long enough to reach, would proba- 
bly have led me to the very top ; but I judged it 
beyond my powers, and, with great care, descended 
to the side of Cotter, who believed that his superior 
length of arm would enable him to make the reach 

I planted myself against the rock, and he started 
cautiously up the wall. Looking down the glare 
front of ice, it was not pleasant to consider at what 
velocity a slip would send me to the bottom, or at 
what angle, and to what probable depth, I should 
be projected into the ice-water. Indeed, the idea 
of such a sudden bath was so annoying that I lifted 
my eyes toward my companion. He reached my 
farthest point without great difficulty, and made a 
bold spring for the crack, reaching it without an 
inch to spare, and holding on wholly by his fingers. 
He thus worked himself slowly along the crack 
toward the top, at last getting his arms over the 
brink, and gradually drawing his body up and out 
of sight. It was the most splendid piece of slow 
gymnastics I ever witnessed. For a moment he 
said nothing ; but when I asked if he was all right, 
he cheerfully repeated, ' All right.' It was only a 
moment's work to send up the two knapsacks and 



300 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

barometer, and receive again my end of the lasso. 
As I tied it round my breast, Cotter said to me, in 
an easy, confident tone, ' Don't be afraid to bear 
your weight.' I made up my mind, however, to 
make that climb without his aid, and husbanded 
my strength as I climbed from crack to crack. I 
got up without difficulty to my former point, rested 
there a moment, hanging solely by my hands, gath- 
ered every pound of strength and atom of will for 
the reach, then jerked myself upward with a swing, 
just getting the tips of my fingers into the crack. 
In an instant I had grasped it with my right hand 
also. I felt the sinews of my fingers relax a little, 
but the picture of the slope of ice and the blue lake 
affected me so strongly that I redoubled my grip 
and climbed slowly along the crack, until I reached 
the angle, and got one arm over the edge as Cotter 
had done. As I rested my body on the edge and 
looked up at Cotter, I saw that, instead of a level 
top, he was sitting upon a smooth, roof-like slope, 
where the least pull would have dragged him over 
the brink. He had no brace for his feet, nor hold 
for his hands, but had seated himself calmly, with 
the rope tied round his breast, knowing that my 
only safety lay in being able to make the climb en- 
tirely unaided ; certain that the least waver in his 
tone would have disheartened me, and perhaps 
made it impossible. The shock I received on seeing 
this affected me for a moment, but not enough to 
throw me off my guard, and I climbed quickly over 
the edge. When we had walked back out of dan- 
ger we sat down upon the granite for a rest. 



THE SIERRA NEVADA. 301 

In all my experience of mountaineering I have 
never known an act of such real, profound courage 
as this of Cotter's, It is one thing, in a moment of 
excitement, to make a gallant leap, or hold one's 
nerves in the iron grasp of will ; but to coolly seat 
one's self in the door of death, and silently listen 
for the fatal summons, and this all for a friend — for 
he might easily have cast loose the lasso and saved 
himself— requires as sublime a type of courage as I 
know. . . . 

It was about two o'clock when we reached the 
summit and rested a moment to look back over our 
new Alps, which were hard and distinct under di- 
rect unpoetic liglit ; yet with all their dense grey 
and white reality, their long, sculptured ranks, and 
cold, still summits, we gave them a lingering fare- 
well look, which was not without its deep fullness • 
of emotion, then turned our backs and hurried 
down the debris slope into the rocky amphitheatre 
at the foot of Mount Brewer, and by five o'clock 
had reached our old camp-ground. We found here 
a note pinned to a tree informing us that the party 
had gone down into the lower canon, five miles be- 
low, that they might camp in better pasturage. 

The wind had scattered the ashes ol our old 
camp-fire, and banished from it the last sentiment 
of home. We hurried on, climbing among the rocks 
which reached down to the crest of the great lateral 
moraine, and then on in rapid* stride along its 
smooth crest, riveting our eyes upon the valley be- 
low, where we knew the party must be camped. 

At last, faintly curling above the sea of green 



302 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

tree tops, a few faint clouds of smoke wafted up- 
ward into the air. We saw them with a burst of 
strong emotion, and ran down the steep flank of 
the moraine at the top of our speed. Our shouts 
were instantly answered by the three voices of our 
friends, who welcomed us to their camp-fire with 
tremendous hugs. 

After we had outlined for them the experience 
of our days, and as we lay outstretched at our ease, 
warm in the blaze of the glorious camp-fire, Brewer 
said to me, " King, you have relieved me of a dread- 
ful task. For the last three days I have been com- 
posing a letter to your family, but somehow I did 
not get beyond, ' It becomes my painful duty to in- 
form you.' " 

Clabence King, Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada. 
# (Atlantic Monthly). 



XXVII. 

DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT VOLCANO. 

BY H. DE SAUSSURE IN 1855. 

You have often asked me to communicate some de- 
tails relating to my journey in Mexico ; but until 
the present time I have not found it possible to 
begin the relation of my observations on the geo- 
graphy of this interesting country. I shall now 
confine myself to speaking of the discovery of an 
ancient extinct volcano, about which there are re- 
markably curious points, worthy of the attention of 
the geographer as well as of the geologist. But when 
I talk of the discovery of this mountain, I do not 
pretend that it had never been visited by any one, 
for the inhabitants of the surrounding district knew 
it very well; but no traveller has ever suspected 
its existence, and even the inhabitants of the Mexi- 
can towns are quite in ignorance about it. 

On the southwest of the valley of Mexico, ex- 
tends the green province of Michoacan, which with 
good reason passes for the garden of Mexico, and 
which unites the advantages of a broken-up soil, 
furrowed by a great number of water-courses, and 



304 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

of a temperate climate. When the traveller gets 
into one of these green meadows, after having tra- 
velled a long time in the sandy plains of Anahuac 
and the marshes of the basin of Mexico, he expe- 
riences a peculiar delight at the sight of these 
wooded hills between which stretch verdant mea- 
dows, rivers with their pure, clear waves, and en- 
chanting lakes on the bosom of which float islets 
covered with a rich vegetation. In the other dis- 
tricts of this country some wild and rugged moun- 
tains conceal veins of precious metal which, at the 
present time, are the sole riches of these Spanish 
republics. The most flourishing of these districts 
is that of Angangeo, situated on the confines of the 
State of Mexico. I quitted this locality on the 6th 
of August, 1855, and directed myself to the west 
towards the village of Taximaroa. I had received 
some vague intimation of the existence in this 
region of a great mountain bearing the name of San 
Andres, but I had some trouble in finding a guide 
who should conduct me to it. 

All the volcanoes of Mexico are easy of access. 
The slope of their sides is so gentle that one can 
ascend on horseback to a considerable height ; but 
they are always covered with forests which hide the 
horizon and the summit of the mountain. Every- 
where the visual ray is arrested by the trunks of 
venerable trees which seem to dispute the ground, 
Or which lie heaped together in masses of rotten- 
ness, where all living nature seems to retire into 
shade from the eye of the passer-by. This vigorous 
and gigantic vegetation, the fruit of a tropical 




THE SAN ANDHES, MEXICO. 



DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT VOLCANO. . 305 

climate, and remarkably fertile soil, excites for a 
length of time j)he imagination of the traveller ; but 
all this ends at last in fatigue, and its monotony fills 
the soul with ennui and sadness. Here, however, 
the uniformity is broken by great openings among the 
trees ; and the horizontal ground appears to me to 
have belonged to a series of dried-up lakes. The 
mountain of San Andres is, in fact, very distinct. Its 
sides are not uniformly inclined ; but they are cut up 
into plains, mounds, and hills, on the mountain itself. 
This vast whole presents a mass of domes and of 
crests, separated by plains and valleys ; and it rises 
gradually by stages to the last plateau, on the level 
of which surges up the rounded rock which forms 
the highest point. 

The straight path which conducts from the 
village of Jaripea to the place of the sulphur 
works, sometimes crosses the marshes of the plains, 
sometimes goes down into ravines, in which our 
steps were attended with danger every moment. 
The soil of the mountain is entirely composed of a 
bluish trachyte, crossed by an infinity of very wide 
lines of obsidian, so that, in many places, men and 
horses walk literally over glass. All the neigh- 
boring plains are of much the same character, and 
are besides inundated with basaltic overflowings, 
which have boiled up through a multitude of chinks 
with which the ground has been riddled during the 
numerous cataclysms which the incessant volcanic 
shocks have caused. 

After several hours' march Ave came out suddenly 
on a pebbly amphitheatre, in which the most curious 



306 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

sj)ectacle was presented to our eyes. At the bottom 
of this species of shaft is to be seen a circular pond, 
more than three hundred feet wide, filled with a 
troubled and boiling water, from which escapes a 
cloud of vapor loaded with mephitic gases. All 
the divisions of the amphitheatre are rocks com- 
pletely bare of earth or vegetation, softened and 
whitened by the sulphurous vapors with which the 
atrnosjDhere of this gulf is loaded. On these rocks 
are to be seen yellow and red rays, which indicate 
the incessant action of sulphur ; and a languishing 
vegetation covers on all sides the edges which are 
perpendicularly cut. This struggle between a bud- 
ding vegetation and the noxious emanations which 
keep it down, has something sad in it, which renders 
the appearance of these desolate places still more 
wild. The marsh of hot water which occupies the 
lower parts, to judge by the steepness of its edges, 
is of a great depth. Out of it they continually 
draw sulphur mixed with mud, which is used in the 
manufacture of powder, after it has been purified by 
fusion. Some earthen huts and a little building 
for the works have been constructed for this busi- 
ness, and at a distance from the lagune, at which 
less of the mephitical exhalations are felt ; but such 
is still the influence of the sulphurous vapors at 
this distance, that it transforms the argillaceous 
earth of which the houses are built into different 
sulphates, principally into alum, so that they act- 
ually crumble away periodically. This phenomenon 
is one of the most curious that can be seen any- 
where. 



DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT VOLCANO. 307 

We gave the rest of the day to exploring dif- 
ferent parts of the mountain, and, guided by two 
Indians, we penetrated into an elevated valley, 
using our hatchets to clear the way for ourselves 
through the thick parts of the forests, the extraor- 
dinary vegetation of which surpasses in majesty and 
vigor all that I had seen on the mountains of 
Mexico. The ground is strewed with gigantic 
trunks, which are heaped pell-mell under the thick 
foliage of living trees ; and when we tried to get 
clear of them by stepping from one to another, they 
crumbled and fell into dust, drawing us in their 
fall down into a bed of ferns and other plants, so 
that we found ourselves in a manner between moun- 
tains of decayed substances. 

For about an hour our attention had been at- 
tracted by a strange noise, like that of a cataract at 
a distance, when we perceived a great column of 
white smoke, whose curling flakes seemed to be 
thrust out over the summit of the fir-trees which 
cover the flanks of the valley. 

On reaching the place whence the noise pro- 
ceeded we were struck by the grandeur of the 
spectacle which it presented. Before us was a 
whitened slope, which appeared as if covered with 
porcelain. 

On the top of this there was a well with an 
opening about six feet across, from whence escaped, 
Avith a horrible whistling noise, an immense jet of 
vapor, which rose into the ah' to a considerable 
height. 

At the same time a flood of boiling water over- 



308 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

flowed from this opening and ran in several streams 
down to the valley. This phenomenon could only 
be compared to that of the Geysers of Iceland ; and 
here, as there, the results were the same. The 
waters in their course deposit a quantity of silica, 
and form all around those white rocks whose sub- 
stance I have compared to that of porcelain. All 
the stones which these waters moisten are in a state 
of growth. Their surface is soft, like a species of 
paste ; and when this becomes solid, it is a sort of 
compact opal. 

San Andres has many other curiosities too. 
Not far from this jet of vapor, and in the same 
valley, there is another hot spring, in the middle of 
divers little basins, which look as if they had been 
cut by the hand of man. But this latter offers 
scarcely any object of interest except that of a 
simple mineral spring, unless it is the high tem- 
perature of its waters, which are found to be nearly 
212°. 

We continued our course through the woods, 
always guided by our Indians, and rising gradually 
up the sides of the valley, but without going beyond 
the circuit of half a league, suddenly we saw open- 
ing before us a gulf whose argillaceous and perpen- 
dicular banks threatened to give way under our 
feet. In the depth of this hole we saw a marsh of 
muddy water, agitated by a violent ebullition. Its 
level first fell, then rose in immense swellings, and 
broke out and fell on all sides in waves of foam. 
Some firs, which the falling of the banks had let 
down, were beaten up in this funnel, and agitated 



DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT VOLCANO. 309 

in the boiling waves of this grey mud, they were 
subjected to a regular cooking operation, and shaken 
about like a vegetable in a pot of boiling water. 
The suddenness with which we came on this spec- 
tacle rendered it still more frightful. We fell back, 
seized with fear at the thought that the earth 
might fail under our feet, and that the least im- 
prudence would precipitate us into this gulf, where 
a frightful death would be inevitable. 

We could not help comparing this marvellous 
picture to certain fairy scenes which belong to the 
middle ages. If, instead of being placed in the 
bosom of the deserts of America, the mountain 
which we have described had been found on the 
banks of the Rhine, it would have added more than 
one legend to the Gothic traditions of Germany. 
Is not the kettle of Eubezahl like this caldron of 
the mountain, in which the trees of the forest are 
cooked? And this dreadful place — if the witches 
of Macbeth lived in it — would it not be a perfect 
picture ? 

It is highly probable that the San Andres has 
many other objects worthy of attention ; but the 
impenetrable forests which entirely cover it, pre- 
vent the traveller from exploring it at his ease. 
In another excursion, which I afterwards made be- 
yond the sulphur factory, I saw a vast glade, in 
which the ground is occupied by a lake of bitter 
water, fed, no doubt, from subterranean sources. 
Nothing can be more triste than these isolated 
places, where an expanse of brackish water is bor- 
dered all around by the venerable trees of a silent 



310 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

and monotonous forest, which neither deer nor 
parrots ever come to enliven. It was there that, 
seized by a violent attack of fever, I became inca- 
pable of pushing further the exploration of the San 
Andres. I deplored this circumstance the more 
because it rendered it impossible for me to visit the 
peak of the mountain which the inhabitants call 
the Oerro Grande, the altitude of which very sensibly 
passes the limit of arborescent vegetation. They 
even assert that it is not free from perpetual snows ; 
but the information which a traveller obtains from 
the natives is too vague to inspire much confi- 
dence. 

Letter of M. H. de Saussube to M. de la Koquette, Bulletin de 
la Societe de Gtographie. 



XXVIII. 

THE SILL A OF GAB AG AS. 

A. DE HUMBOLDT. 

I remained two months at Caracas, where M. Bon- 
pland and I lived in a large house in the most ele- 
vated part of the town. From a gallery we could 
survey at once the summit of the Silla, the serrated 
ridge of the Galipano, and the charming valley of 
the Guayra, the rich culture of which was pleasingly 
contrasted with the gloomy curtain of the surround- 
ing mountains. It was in the dry season, and to 
improve the pasturage, the savannahs and the turf 
covering the steepest rocks were set on fire. These 
vast conflagrations, viewed from a distance, produce 
the most singular effects of light. Wherever the 
savannahs, following the undulating slope of the 
rocks, have filled up the furrows hollowed out by 
the water, the flame appears, on a dark night, like 
currents of lava, suspended over the valley. The 
vivid but steady light assumes a reddish tint, when 
the wind, descending from the Silla, accumulates 
streams of vapor in the low regions. At other 
times (and this effect is still more curious) these 



312 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

luminous bands, enveloped in thick clouds, appear 
only at intervals when it is clear ; and as the clouds 
ascend, their edges reflect a splendid light. These 
various phenomena, so common in the tropics, ac- 
quire additional interest from the form of the moun- 
tains, the direction of the slopes, and the height of 
the savannahs covered with Alpine grasses. During 
the day the wind of Petare, blowing from the east, 
drives the smoke towards the town, and diminishes 
the transparency of the air. 

In a country abounding in such magnificent 
scenery, and at a period when, notwithstanding 
some symptoms of popular commotion, most of the 
inhabitants seem only to direct their attention to 
physical objects, such as the fertility of the year, the 
long drought, or the conflicting winds of Petare, and 
Catia, I expected to find many individuals well 
acquainted with the lofty surrounding mountains. 
But I was disappointed ; and we could not find in 
Caracas a single individual who had visited the sum- 
mit of the Silla. Hunters do not ascend so high on 
the ridges of mountains, and in these countries jour- 
neys are not undertaken for such purposes as gather- 
ing Alpine plants, carrying a barometer to an elevated 
point, or examining the nature of rocks. Accus- 
tomed to a uniform and domestic life, the people 
dread fatigue and sudden changes of climate. 
They seem to live not to enjoy life, but only to pro- 
long it. 

Our walks led us often in the direction of two 
coffee-plantations, the proprietors of which, Don 
Andres de Ibarra and M. Blandin, were men of agree- 



THE SILLA OF CARACAS. 313 

able manners. These plantations were situated 
opposite the Silla de Caracas. Surveying, by a tele- 
scope, the steep declivity of the mountain, and the 
form of the two peaks by which it is terminated, we 
could form an idea of the difficulties we should have 
to encounter in reaching its summit. Angles of 
elevation, taken with the sextant at our house, had 
led me to believe that the summit was not so high 
above sea-level as the great square of Quito. This 
estimate was far from corresponding with the notions 
entertained by the inhabitants of the city. Moun- 
tains which command great towns, have acquired, 
from that jrery circumstance, an extraordinary cele- 
brity in both continents. Long before they have 
been accurately measured, a conventional height is 
assigned to them, and to entertain the least doubt 
respecting that height is to wound national prejudice. 
The Captain- General, Senor de Guevara, directed the 
teniente of Chacao to furnish us with guides to con- 
duct us on our ascent of the Silla. These guides 
were Negroes, and the} 7 knew something of the path 
leading over the ridge of the mountain, near the 
western peak of the Silla. This path is frequented 
by smugglers, but neither the guides nor the most 
experienced of the militia, accustomed to pursue the 
smugglers in these wild spots, had been on the 
eastern peak, forming the most elevated summit of 
the Silla. 

During the whole month of December the moun- 
tain (of which the angles of elevation made me 
acquainted with the effects of the terrestrial re- 
fraction) had appeared only five times free of clouds. 



314 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

In this season of the year two serene days seldom 
succeed each other, and we were therefore advised 
not to choose a clear day for our excursion, but 
rather a time when, the clouds not being elevated, 
we might hope, after having crossed the first layer 
of vapors uniformly spread, to enter into dry and 
transparent air. We passed the night of the 2nd of 
January in the Estancia de Gallegos, a plantation of 
coffee-trees, near which the little river of Chacaito, 
flowing in a luxuriantly shaded ravine, forms some 
fine cascades in descending the mountains. The 
night was pretty clear, and though on the day pre- 
ceding a fatiguing journey, it might have .been well 
to have enjoyed some repose, M. Bonpland and I 
passed the whole night in watching three occulta- 
tions of the satellites of Jupiter. I had previously 
determined the instant of the observations, but we 
missed them all, owing to some error of calculation 
in the Gonnaissance des Temps. The apparent time 
had been mistaken for mean time. 

I was much disappointed by this accident, and 
after having observed at the foot of the mountain 
the intensity of the magnetic forces before sunrise, 
we set out at five in the morning, accompanied by 
slaves carrying our instruments. Our party consisted 
of eighteen persons, and we all walked one behind 
another, in a narrow path, traced on a steep declivity 
covered with turf. We endeavored first to reach 
a hill, which towards the southeast seems to form a 
promontory of the Silla. It is connected with the 
body of the mountain by a narrow dyke, called by 
the shepherds the Gate, or Puerta de la Silla. We 



THE SILLA OF CARACAS. 315 

reached this dyke about seven. The morning was 
fine and cool, and the sky then seemed to favor 
our excursion. I saw that the thermometer kept 
a little below 57°. The barometer showed that 
we were already 685 fathoms above the level of 
the sea — that is, nearly 80 fathoms higher than at 
the Venta, where we enjoyed so magnificent a view 
of the coast. Our guides thought that it would 
require six hours more to reach the summit of the 
Silla. 

We crossed a narrow dyke of rocks, covered with 
turf, which led us from the promontory of the Puerta 
to the ridge of the great mountain. Here the eye 
looks down on two valleys, or rather narrow defiles, 
filled with thick vegetation. On the right is per- 
ceived the ravine which descends between the two 
peaks to the farm of Muiioz ; on the left we saw the 
defile of Chacaito, with its waters flowing out near 
the farm of Gallegos. The roaring of the cascades 
is heard, while the water is unseen, being concealed 
by thick groves of erythrina, clusia, and the Indian 
fig-tree. Nothing can be more picturesque in a 
climate where so many plants have broad, large, 
shining, and coriaceous leaves, than the aspect of 
trees when the spectator looks down from a great 
height above them, and when they are illumined by 
the almost perpendicular rays of the sun. 

From the Puerta de la Silla the steepness of the 
ascent increases, and we were obliged to incline our 
bodies considerably forward as we advanced. The 
slope is often from 30° to 32°. We felt the want 
of cramp-irons, or sticks shod with iron. Short 



316 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

grass covered the rocks of gneiss, and it was equally 
impossible to hold by the grass, or to form steps, as 
we might have done in softer ground. This ascent, 
which was attended with more fatigue than danger, 
discouraged those who accompanied us from the 
town, and who were unaccustomed to climb moun- 
tains. We lost a great deal of time in waiting for 
them, and we did not resolve to proceed alone till 
we saw them descending the mountain instead of 
climbing up it. The weather was becoming cloudy ; 
the mist already issued in the form of smoke, and 
in slender and perpendicular streaks, from a small, 
luminous wood which bordered the region of Alpine 
savannahs. It seemed as if a fire had burst forth at 
once on several points of the forest. These streaks 
of vapor gradually accumulated together, and rising 
above the ground, were carried along by the morn- 
ing breeze, and glided like a light cloud over the 
rounded summit of the mountain. M. Bonpland 
and I foresaw from these infallible signs that we 
should soon be covered by a thick fog, and lest our 
guides should take advantage of this circumstance 
and leave us, we obliged those who carried the most 
necessary instruments to precede us ; we continued 
climbing the slopes which led towards the ravine 
of Chacaito. . . . 

The eastern peak is the most elevated of the two 
which form the summit of the mountain, and to this 
we directed our course with our instruments. The 
hollow between the two peaks has suggested the 
Spanish name of Silla (saddle), which is given to 
the whole mountain. . . . We were sometimes so 



THE SELLA OF CAEACAS. 317 

enveloped in mist that we could with difficulty 
find our way. At this height there is no path, 
and we were obliged to climb with our hands 
when our feet failed us, on the steep and slippery 
declivity. 

After proceeding for the space of four .hours 
across the savannahs, we entered a little wood com- 
posed of shrubs and small trees, called el Pejual. 
We spent a long time in examining the fine resinous 
and fragrant plants of the Pejual. Quitting the 
little thicket of Alpine plants, we found ourselves 
again in a savannah. We climbed over a part of 
the western dome, in order to descend into the hollow 
of the Silla, a valley which separates the two sum- 
mits of the mountain. We there had great diffi- 
culties to overcome, occasionally, by the force of the 
vegetation. 

Wandering in this thick wood of musacese or 
arborescent plants, we constantly directed our course 
towards the eastern peak, which we perceived from 
time to time through an opening. On a sudden we 
found ourselves again enveloped in a dense mist ; 
the compass alone could guide us, but in advancing 
northward we were in danger at every step of finding 
ourselves on the brink of that enormous wall of 
rocks which descends almost perpendicularly to 
the depth of six thousand feet towards the sea. We 
were obliged to halt. Surrounded by clouds sweep- 
ing the ground, we began to doubt whether we 
should reach the eastern peak before night. Hap- 
pily, the Negroes who carried our water and pro- 



318 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

visions soon reached us, and we resolved to take 
some refreshment. 

We were three quarters of an hour in reaching 
the summit of the pyramid. Having arrived 
there, we enjoyed for a few minutes only the se- 
renity of the sky. We were at thirteen hundred 




Bridge in the Cordilleras. 

and fifty fathoms of elevation. We gazed on an 
extent of sea, the radius of which was thirty-six 
leagues. 

It was half-past four when we finished our ob- 
servations. Satisfied with the success of our journey, 
we forgot that there might be danger in descending 
in the dark steep declivities covered by a smooth 
and slippery turf. The mist concealed the valley 
from us, but we distinguished the double hill of La 
Puerta, which, like all objects lying almost per- 
pendicularly beneath the eye, appeared extremely 



THE SILLA OF CARACAS, 319 

near. We relinquished our design of passing the 
night between the two summits of the Silla, and 
having again found the path we had cut through 
the thick wood of the heliconia, we soon arrived at 
Pejual, the region of odoriferous and resinous 
plants. 

As there is scarcely any twilight in the tropics, 
we pass suddenly from bright daylight to darkness. 
The moon was on the horizon, but her disk was 
veiled from time to time by thick clouds, drifted by 
a cold and rough wind. Rapid slopes, covered with 
yellow and dry grass, now seen in shade, and now 
suddenly illumined, seemed like precipices, the 
depth of which the eye sought in vain to measure. 
We proceeded onwards in single file, and endea- 
vored to support ourselves by our hands, lest we 
should roll down. The guides, who carried our in- 
struments, abandoned us successively, to sleep on 
the mountain. Among those who remained with 
us was a Congo black, who evinced great address, 
bearing on his head a large dipping-needle : he held 
it constantly steady, notwithstanding the extreme 
declivity of the rocks. The fog had dispersed by 
degrees in the bottom of the valley, and the 
scattered lights perceived below us caused a double 
illusion. The steeps appeared still more dangerous 
than they really were ; and during six hours of con- 
tinued descent we seemed to be always equally near 
the farms at the foot of the Silla. We heard very 
distinctly the voices of men and the notes of guitars. 
Sound is generally so well propagated upwards, that 



320 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

in a balloon at the elevation of 18,000 feet the bark- 
ing of dogs is sometimes heard. 

We did not arrive till ten at night at the bottom 
of the valley. 

A. de Humboldt, Voyages aux regions tquinoxiales du nouheau 
continent. 



XXIX. 

CHIMBORAZO. 

ASCENT BY BOUSSINGAULT. 

Eiobamba is perhaps the most singular diorama in 
the world. The town presents nothing remarkable 
in itself; but it is placed on one of the sterile 
plateaux so common in the Andes, which, at this 
great elevation, have all of them a characteristic 
appearance of winter, which impresses the traveller 
with a feeling of sadness. In order to reach it he 
has to pass through very picturesque places ; and 
this increases the depression produced by the 
change ; for it is always with regret that one leaves 
the climate of the tropics for the frosts of the north. 

From the house where I lived I could look over 
Capac-Urcu, Tunguragna, Cubille, Carguairazo, and 
lastly, to the north, Chimborazo ; besides several 
other celebrated mountains of the Paramos, which, 
though they have not the honor of perpetual snow, 
are still none the less worthy of the attention of 
the geologist. 

This vast amphitheatre, which bounds on all sides 
the horizon of Eiobamba, is the scene of continually 



322 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

varied phenomena. It is curious to observe the 
different appearances of these glaciers at different 
hours of the day ; and to see their apparent heights, 
varying from one moment to another, from the effect 
of atmospheric refractions ; and it is with great 
interest that one sees produced in a space so circum- 
scribed all the great phenomena of meteorology. 
Here it is one of those clouds that De Saussure has 
so well described as parasitical clouds, which has 
just attached itself to the middle part of a cone of 
trachyte : it sticks to it ; and the wind, though 
blowing strongly, cannot move it. Soon the thunder 
bursts from this mass of vapor ; hail mingled with 
rain inundates the lower part of the mountain, 
whilst its snowy summit, which the storm has not 
yet reached, is vividly lighted up by the sun. 
Further on, it is a sharp peak of ice resplendent 
with light ; it stands out against the azure of the 
heavens, and all its forms may be distinguished even 
to the minutiae ; the atmosphere is remarkably clear, 
and yet this peak is covered with a cloud which 
seems to emanate from its own bosom, so that one 
might imagine it to have come out of smoke. This 
cloud is already become a light vapor, and soon it 
disappears altogether. But soon also it reproduces 
itself just to disappear again. This intermittent 
formation of the clouds is a very frequent pheno- 
menon on the summits of mountains covered with 
snow. It is chiefly observable in serene weather, 
always some hours after the culmination of the sun. 
In these conditions the glaciers may be compared 
to condensers thrust up towards the high regions of 



CHIMBORAZO. 323 

the atmosphere, in order to dry up the water by 
freezing it, and to bring back in this way to the 
surface of the earth the water which they find in a 
state of vapor. 

These plateaux, surrounded by glaciers, some- 
times present the most lugubrious aspect, when a 
continued wind brings to them the humid air of the 
hot regions. The mountains become invisible, and 
the horizon is masked by a line of clouds which 
seem to touch the earth. The day is cold and 
damp, — this mass of vapor being almost impene- 
trable to the solar light. It is a long twilight, the 
only one which is known in the tropics; for in 
the equatorial zone the night succeeds suddenly to 
day, so that the sun seems to become extinguished 
in setting. 

I could not better finish my researches on the 
trachytes of the Cordilleras than by a special study 
of Chimborazo. In order to do so, it was certainly 
sufficient to approach its base : but what made me 
go beyond the snowy boundary — what made me 
determine on the ascent — was the hope of obtaining 
the mean temperature of an extremely elevated 
station. And, although this hope was frustrated, 
my excursion, I hope, was not without its use with 
regard to science. 

My friend, Colonel Hall, who had already ac- 
companied me up Antisana and Cotopaxi, wished 
again to go with me on this expedition, in order to 
add to the knowledge which he already possessed 
of the topography of Quito, and to continue his re- 
searches on the geography of plants. 



324 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

From BAobaniba, Cliimboraza presents two slopes 
of very different inclinations. The one which looks 
towards the Arenal is very abrupt ; and there are to 
be seen coming out from under the ice numerous 
points of trachyte. The other, towards the place 
called Chillapullu, not far from Mocha, is, on the 
contrary, little inclined, but of a considerable extent. 
After having well examined the environs of the 
mountains, it was by this slope that we resolved to 
attack it. On the 14th of December, 1831, we went 
to lodge at the farm of the Chimb orazo, where we 
found dry straw to lie on, and some sheep-skins to 
keep us from the cold. The farm stands on an ele- 
vation of 12,350, so that the nights are cool there ; 
and as a resting place, it is not agreeable, because 
wood is scarce. We were already in the region ox 
graminaceous plants, which has to be crossed before 
the region of perpetual snow is reached : there all 
ligneous vegetation ends. 

On the loth, at seven in the morning, we put 
ourselves en route, guided by an Indian from the 
farm. We followed, in ascending, a rivulet enclosed 
between two walls of trachyte, whose waters descend 
from the glacier ; but very soon we quitted this 
crevasse, in order to direct our steps towards Mocha, 
going along the base of Chimborazo. We rose 
insensibly ; and our mules walked with trouble and 
difficulty through the debris of rock which has accu- 
mulated on the foot of the mountain. The slope 
then became very rapid, the ground was unstable, 
and the mules stopped almost at every step to make 
a long pause ; they no longer obeyed the spur. The 



CHIMBORAZO. 325 

breathing of the animals was hurried and panting. 
We were then precisely at the height of Mont Blanc, 
for the barometer indicated an elevation of 15,626 
feet above the level of the sea. 

After we had covered our faces with masks of 
light gauze, in order to preserve ourselves from 
accidents such as we had met with on the Antisana, 
we began to ascend a ridge which abutted on a 
very elevated point of the glacier. It was midday. 
We went up slowly ; and, as we got further and 
further on to the snow, the difficulty of breathing in 
walking became more and more felt ; but we easily 
regained our strength by stopping at every eight or 
ten steps without always sitting down. As we went 
on, we felt extreme fatigue from the want of con- 
sistency in a snowy soil, which continually gave way 
under our feet, and in which we sank sometimes up 
to the waist. In spite of all our efforts, we were 
soon convinced of the impossibility of advancing ; 
in fact, a little farther on the shifting snow was more 
than four feet deep. We went to rest on a block 
of trachyte, which resembled an island in the midst 
of a sea of snow. The height noted down was 
16,623 feet; so that, after much fatigue, we had 
only reached 997 feet higher than the place where 
we set out. 

At six o'clock, we were back at the farm. The 
weather had been splendid, and Chimborazo had 
never appeared to us so magnificent ; but, after our 
fruitless journey, Ave could not help looking at it 
with a feeling of spite. We were determined to 
attempt the ascent by the abrupt side ; that is to 



326 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

say, by the slope which looks towards the Arenal. 
We knew that it was on this side that Hum- 
boldt had ascended this mountain ; for they had 
pointed out to us at Riobamba the point to which 
he had reached ; but it was impossible for us to 
obtain exact information as to the route which he 
had followed to get there, for the Indians who had 
accompanied that intrepid traveller were no longer 
living. 

At seven o'clock the next day we took the road 
towards the Arenal. The sky was remarkably pure. 
On the east we perceived the famous volcano of 
Sangay, in the province of Macas, which, nearly a 
century before, La Condamine had seen in a state of 
permanent incandescence. In proportion as we 
advanced, the land rose sensibly. In general the 
trachytic plateau which supports the isolated peaks 
with which the Andes are, as it were, bristling, rise 
gradually to the base of these same peaks. The 
numerous and deep crevasses which furrow these 
plateaux seem all to start from a common centre ; 
they become narrower as they get away from this 
centre. We could only compare them to the lines 
on the surface of a cracked glass. 

We were at a height of 16,071 feet when we 
took to journeying on foot. The ground had be- 
come altogether impracticable for the mules ; and, 
besides, those animals, whose instinct is extraor- 
dinary, tried to make us understand the great fa- 
tigue which they felt ; their ears, usually so straight 
and attentive, were quite drooping, and, during the 
frequent halts which they made for breath, they 



CHIMBOEAZO. 327 

never ceased looking towards the plain. Few riders 
have probably taken their steeds to such a height ; 
and to travel on the back of mules, over a moving 
soil beyond the limits of the snow, requires, perhaps, 
several years' experience in riding in the Andes. 

After having examined the locality in which we 
were, we saw that in order to gain a ridge which 
ascended towards the summit of Chimborazo, we 
must first climb an excessively steep ascent just in 
front of us. It was formed in great part of blocks 
of rock of all sizes, disposed in slopes. Here and 
there these fragments of trachyte were covered by 
sheets of ice more or less extensive, and in several 
points you could clearly see that these debris of rock 
lay over the hardened snow. They proceeded con- 
sequently from the recent falls which had taken 
place in the uppor part of the mountain. These 
falls are frequent, and in the midst of the glaciers of 
the Cordilleras what one has most to fear are the 
avalanches in which there are realty more stones 
than snow. 

At eleven o'clock we finished crossing a very 
extended sheet of ice on which we had been obliged 
to cut notches in order to make sure of our steps. 
This passage was not without danger, for a slide 
might have cost us our lives. We entered then afresh 
on the debris of trachyte, which was firm earth to 
us, and from that time we were able to ascend more 
rapidly. We marched along in a file, I first, then 
Col. Hall, and my Negro last. He followed my steps 
exactly, in order not to endanger the safety of the 
instruments which were intrusted to him. We kept 



328 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

an absolute silence during our march, experience 
having taught me that nothing exhausts so much as 
a sustained conversation at this height ; and during 
our halts, if we exchanged a few words, it was in a 
low voice. It is, in a great measure, to this pre- 
caution that I attribute the state of health which I 
have constantly enjoyed during my ascents up vol- 
canoes. And this precaution I imposed, so to speak, 
in a despotic manner on those who accompanied me , 
for, on the Antisana, an Indian who neglected it; 
and called with all the strength of his lungs to Col. 
Hall, who had lost his way as we were passing 
through a cloud, was attacked with giddiness and 
hemorrhage. 

"We had now reached the ridge at which we were 
aiming. It was not what we had thought it from a 
distance, for, in fact, there was little snow on it ; but 
then its sides were so steep that they were very 
difficult to climb. We were obliged to make almost 
unheard-of efforts, and such gymnastics are painful 
in these aerial regions. At last we arrived at the 
foot of a perpendicular wall of trachyte which was 
many hundred feet in height. There was a visible 
feeling of discouragement in the expedition when 
the barometer told us that we were only at a height 
of 18,460 feet. This was little for us, for it was 
not even the height to which we had attained 
on Cotopaxi. Besides, Humboldt had ascended 
higher on Chimborazo ; and we wished at least to 
attain the point at which that learned traveller had 
stopped. Explorers of mountains when they are 
discouraged are always very much disposed to sit 



CHIMBORAZO. 329 

down, and that is what we did on the Pena Colorada 
(Red Rock). It was the first rest sitting that we 
had allowed ourselves ; and as we were all excess- 
ively thirsty our first occupation was to suck some 
icicles in order to quench this thirst. 

It was a quarter to one p. M., and yet we felt- 
quite cold enough, and the thermometer was down 
to 31°. We then found ourselves enveloped in a 
cloud. When this had disappeared we examined 
our situation. Looking towards the red rock, we 
had on the right a frightful abyss ; on the left, 
towards the Arenal, we could distinguish an ad- 
vanced rock, which looked like a turret. It was 
important to reach this in order to see if we could 
turn the red rock, and to ascertain at the same time 
if it were possible to continue our ascent. Access 
to this turret was difficult, but I managed it with 
the assistance of my two companions. I saw then 
that if we succeeded in climbing over a very inclined 
surface, covered with snow, which leant against one 
face of this red rock opposite to the side by which 
we had reached it, we should attain a very consider- 
able elevation. And in order to get a clear idea of 
the topography of Chimborazo, let any one picture 
to himself an immense rock, sustained on all sides 
by such props, which from the plain seem to lean 
against this enormous block in order to shore it up. 

Before undertaking this dangerous passage, I 
ordered my Negro to go and try the snow. It was 
of a convenient consistency. Hall and the Negro 
succeeded in turning the foot of the position which 
I occupied, and I joined them when they were suffi- 



330 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

ciently firmly planted to receive me, for in order to 
rejoin them it was necessary to slide down about 25 
feet of ice. At the moment of setting forward, a 
stone detached itself from the top of the mountain, 
and fell quite close to Col. Hall. He tottered and 
fell; I thought him wounded, and was only reas- 
sured when I saw him get up and examine with his 
magnifying glass the sample of rock which was so 
roughly submitted to our investigation ; the unlucky 
trachyte was of the same kind as that on which we 
were walking. 

We advanced carefully ; on the right we could 
support ourselves on the rock, on the left the de- 
clivity was frightful, and before going forward we 
began by familiarizing ourselves with the precipice. 
This is a precaution which should never be neglected 
in the mountains, whenever a dangerous place has 
to be passed. De Saussure said so long ago, but 
it cannot be repeated too often ; and in my adven- 
turous journeys among the peaks of the Andes I 
have never lost sight of this wise precept. 

We began already to feel more than we had yet 
done the effect of the rarefaction of the air ; we 
were obliged to stop every two or three steps, and 
often even to lie down for two or three seconds. 
Once seated we were all right again ; our suffering 
was only during the time that we were in motion. 
But the snow itself soon rendered our progress as 
slow as it was dangerous. It was only soft for about 
three or four inches, and below was a very hard 
and slippery ice, in which we were obliged to cut 
notches. The Negro went before in order to make 



CH1MB0RAZ0. 331 

these steps, and the labor exhausted him in a 
moment. I went forward to relieve him, and slid ; 
but happily for me, Hall and my Negro held me up. 
However, for an instant we were all in imminent 
danger. This incident made us hesitate a moment, 
but taking new courage, we resolved to go on ; the 
snow became more favorable ; we made a last effort, 
and in an hour and three quarters we were on the 
desired ridge. There, we were convinced that it 
was impossible to do more, being now at the foot of 
a prism of trachyte, of which the upper basis, 
covered with a cupola of snow, forms the summit of 
Chimborazo. 

The ridge at which we had arrived was only 
some feet in width. On all sides we were environed 
with precipices, and surrounded by the strangest 
sights. The deep color of the rock contrasted in 
the most striking manner with the dazzling white- 
ness of the snow. Long stalagmites of ice appeared 
suspended over our heads, so that one might have 
thought that a magnificent cascade had frozen there. 
The weather was beautiful, some light clouds only 
being visible in the west ; the air was quite calm, 
so that the view was very extensive ; the situation 
was new, and we felt a lively satisfaction in it. We 
were at a height of 19,513 feet, which is, I believe, 
the greatest height to which men have . ever 
climbed. 

After some moments' repose, we found ourselves 
entirely recovered from our fatigues, and neither of 
us experienced those uncomfortable sensations which 
most persons who have ascended high mountains 



332 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

have done. Three quarters of an hour after our 
arrival rny pulse, and also Ool. Hall's, beat 106 in 
a minute ; we were thirsty, and evidently under a 
slightly feverish influence ; but it was not a painful 
state. My friend was very gay, and constantly 
saying the most piquant things, notwithstanding 
that he was occupied in drawing the view that lay 
beneath us. All sounds seemed to me, however, 
thinned in a remarkable manner, and the voices of 
my companions were so much changed that under 
any other circumstances it would have been im- 
possible to recognize them. The slight noise which 
the blows of my hammer on the rock made also 
surprised us very much. 

The rarefaction of the air generally produces 
very marked results on climbers. On the summit 
of Mont Blanc, De Saussure felt an uneasiness and 
a disposition to sickness ; and his guides, who were 
all inhabitants of Chamounix, experienced the same 
sensations. This state of uneasiness increased also 
when he made any movement, or when he fixed his 
attention on any observations which he was making. 
The first Spaniards who went over the high moun- 
tains of America were attacked, according to the 
account of Acosta, by nausea and stomach com- 
plaints. Bouguer had several attacks of hemor- 
rhage in the Cordilleras of Quito ; the same thing 
happened on Monte Bosa to M. Zumstein ; and 
lastly, on Chimborazo. MM. de Humboldt and Bon- 
pland, at the time of their ascent of the 23rd of 
June, 1802, felt a disposition to vomit, and the 
blood came out of their lips and of their gums. As 



CHIMBOEAZO. 333 

for ourselves, we had, certainly, found a difficulty in 
breathing, and extreme lassitude as we ascended ; 
but these inconveniences ceased with the movement. 
Once at rest, and we believed ourselves to be in our 
normal state ; perhaps we must attribute our insen- 
sibility to the effects of rarefied air, to our prolonged 
stay in the high towns of the Andes. When one 
has seen the activity which there is in towns like 
Bogota, Micuipampa, Potosi, etc., which are at from 
8000 to 12.000 feet above the sea, when one has 
been witness of the strength and prodigious agility 
of the toreadors in a bull-fight at Quito, which is at 
a height of more than 9000 feet ; when one has seen, 
lastly, young and delicate women give themselves 
up to dancing during entire nights in localities 
almost as elevated as Mont Blanc, where the cele- 
brated De Saussure found hardly enough strength to 
consult his instruments, and where his vigorous 
mountaineers fell exhausted whilst digging a hole in 
the snow ; if, I must add, a celebrated battle, that 
of Pichincha, was fought at a height differing little 
from that of Mont Blanc, it will be granted, I think, 
that man may become accustomed to breathe the 
rarefied air of the highest mountains. 

Whilst we were occupied in making our observa- 
tions on Chimborazo the* weather continued fine, 
and the sun was so hot as slightly to incommode us. 
Towards three o'clock we perceived some clouds 
forming below in the plain ; the thunder soon began 
to growl below our position, and though the noise 
was not loud, it was prolonged ; we thougnt at first 
that it was a bramido, or subterranean rumbliug. 



334 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

Dark clouds then gathered round the base of the 
mountain, and they slowly rose towards us. So we 
had no time to lose, for it was essential that we 
should pass the bad places before we were overtaken, 
as otherwise we should run into the greatest dan- 
gers. A heavy fall of snow, or a frost which should 
render the way slippery, would suffice to hinder 
our return, and we had no provision for a stay on 
the glacier. 

The descent was difficult. After we had got 
down from 900 to 1200 feet, we penetrated into 
clouds, by entering them from above : a little lower, 
hail began to fall, which considerably chilled the 
air, and at the moment at which we met the Indian 
who took care of our mules, the cloud broke over us 
in hail that was so large as to be quite painful when 
the hailstones struck either our heads or faces. 

In proportion as we descended an icy rain was 
mixed with the hail. Night surprised us on the 
road ; and it was eight o'clock when we reached the 
farm. 

The observations which I was able to collect 
during this excursion tend all of them to confirm 
my ideas on the nature of the trachyte mountains 
which form the chain of the Cordilleras; for I have 
seen repeated on Chimborazo aU the facts which I 
have noticed in treating of the volcanoes of the 
equator. It is evidently itself an extinct volcano, 
like Cotopaxi, Antisana, Tunguragua, and in gen- 
eral the mountains which stand thickly on the 
plateaux of the Andes. The mass of Chimborazo is 
formed by the accumulation of trachytic debris, 




THE CORDILLERAS, PERU. 



CHIMBORAZO. 335 

heaped together without any order. These frag- 
ments, of a size which is often enormous, have been 
thrown together in a solid state ; their angles are 
always sharp, and nothing indicates that there has 
been any fusion, or even a simple state of softness. 
Nowhere in any of the volcanoes of the equator 
does one observe anything which would lead one to 
presume that there had been a flow of lava ; nothing 
but muddy, elastic fluids, or incandescent blocks of 
trachyte, more or less solid, have come out of these 
craters, and these have often been thrown to con- 
siderable distances. 

On the 23rd of December, in the afternoon, I 
quitted Kiobamba, directing my course towards 
Guayaquil, where I was to embark in order to visit 
the coast of Peru. It was in sight of Chimborazo 
that I separated from Col. Hall. During my stay 
in the province of Quito I had enjoyed his con- 
fidence and his friendship ; his perfect acquaintance 
with the localities had been of the greatest use to 
me, and I had found in him an excellent and in- 
defatigable travelling companion ; and lastly, both 
of us had served for a long time in the cause of 
independence. Our farewells were full of regret, 
and something seemed to tell us that we should 
never meet again. This fatal presentiment was but 
too well founded, for some months afterwards my 
unhappy friend was assassinated in a street of 
Quito. 

Boussingaflt, Voyages aux Volcans de VEquatmr. 



XXX. 

DISCOVERY OF PERUVIAN BARK. 

The whole world, and especially tropical countries 
where intermittent fevers prevail, have long been 
indebted to the mountainous forests of the Andes for 
that inestimable febrifuge which has now become 
indispensable, and the demand for which is rapidly 
increasing, while the supply decreases throughout all 
civilized countries. There is, probably, no drug 
which is more valuable to man than the febrifugal 
alkaloid which is extracted from the chinchona trees 
of South America ; and few greater blessings could 
be conferred on the human race than the naturaliza- 
tion of these trees in India and other congenial 
regions, so as to render the supply more certain, 
cheaper, and more abundant. 

It would be strange indeed, if, as is generally 
supposed, the Indian aborigines of South America 
were ignorant of the virtues of Peruvian bark, yet 
the absence of this sovereign remedy in the wallets 
of itinerant native doctors who have plied their 
trade from father to son since the time of the Incas, 



DISCOVERY OF PERUVIAN BARK. 



337 



certainly gives some countenance to this idea. It 
seems probable, nevertheless, that the Indians were 
aware of the virtues of Peruvian bark in the neigh- 
borhood of Loxa, 230 miles south of Quito, where 
its use was first made known to Europeans, and the 
Indian name for the tree, ' quina quina? ' bark of 
bark, indicates that it was believed to possess some 
special medicinal properties. The Indians looked 
upon their conquerors with dislike and suspicion ; it 
is improbable that they would be quick to impart 
knowledge of this nature to them ; and the interval 
which elapsed between the discovery and settlement 
of the country and the first use of Peruvian bark by 
Europeans may thus easily be explained. 

It may be added, however, that though the 
Indians were aware of the febrifugal qualities of 
this bark, they attached little importance to them 
— they think that the cold North alone permits 
the use of fever-bark, consider it very heating, 
and therefore an unfit remedy in complaints which 
they believe to arise from inflammation of the 
blood 

In about 1630, Don Juan Lopez de Canizares, 
the Spanish Corregidor of Loxa, being ill of an 
intermittent fever, an Indian of Malacotas is said to 
have revealed to him the healing virtues of quin- 
quina bark, and to have instructed him in the 
proper way to administer it, and thus his cure was 
effected. 

In 1638, the wife of Luis Geronimo Fernandez 
de Cabrera Bobadilla y Mendoza, fourth Count of 
Chinchon, lay sick of an intermittent fever in the 



338 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUBES. 

palace at Lima. Her famous cure induced Linnaeus, 
long afterwards, to name the whole genus of quinine 
yielding trees in her honor, ' Chinchona.' 

The Count of Chinchon returned to Spain in 
1640, and his Countess, bringing with her a quan- 
tity of the healing bark, was the first person 
to introduce this invaluable medicine into Europe. 
.... After the cure of the Countess of Chincha, the 
Jesuits were the great promoters of the introduction 

of the bark into Europe In 1670, the Jesuit 

missionaries sent parcels of the powdered bark to 
Rome, whence it was distributed to members of the 
fraternity throughout Europe by the Cardinal de Lu- 
go, and used for the cure of agues with great success. 
Hence the name of ' Jesuit's bark,' and ' Cardinal's 
bark ;' and it was a ludicrous result of its patronage 
by the Jesuits that its use should have been for a 
long time opposed by Protestants and favored 
by Eoman Catholics. In 1679, Louis XIV. bought 
the secret of preparing quinquina from Sir Robert 
Taylor, an English doctor, for two thousand louis- 
d'ors, a large pension, and a title. Erom that 
time Peruvian bark seems to have been recognized 
as the most efficacious remedy for intermittent 
fevers 

The region of chinchona trees extends from 19° 
S. lat., to 10° N., following the almost semicircular 
curve of the Cordillera of the Andes on 1740 miles 
of latitude. They flourish in a cool and equable tem- 
perature on the slopes, and in the valleys and ravines 
of the mountains, and surrounded by the most ma- 
jestic scenery, never descending below an elevation 



i; 

! 



DISCOVERY OF PERUVIAN BARK. 339 

of 2500, and ascending as high as 9000 feet above 
the sea. Within these limits their usual companions 
are tree-ferns, melastomaceaa, arborescent passion- 
flowers, and allied genera of chinchonaceous plants 
Below them are the forests, abounding in palms and 
bamboos ; above their highest limits are a few lonely 
Alpine shrubs. 

But within this wide zone grow many species of 
chinchona, and within its own narrower belts as 
regards elevation above the sea, some yielding the 
inestimable bark, and others commercially worthless. 
The chinchona plant has never been found in any 
part of the world beyond the limits already de- 
scribed. 

When in good soil and under favorable circum- 
stances they become large forest trees ; on higher ele- 
vations, and when crowded and growing in rocky 
ground, they frequently run up to great heights with- 
out a branch, and at the upper limit of their zone 
they become mere shrubs. The leaves are of a great 
variety of shapes and sizes, but in most of the finest 
species they are lanceolate, with a shining surface of 
bright green, traversed by crimson veins, and petioles 
of the same color. The flowers are very small, 
but hang in clustering panicles, like lilacs, generally 
of a deep roseate color, paler near the stalk, 
dark crimson within the tube, with white, curly 
hairs bordering the laciniae of the corolla. The 
flowers of C. micrantha are entirely white. They 
send forth a delicious fragrance which scents the air 

in their vicinity The roots, flowers and capsules 

of the chinchona trees have a bitter taste, with tonic 



340 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

properties ; but the upper bark is the only part 
which has any commercial value. 

Until the present century, Peruvian bark was 
used in its crude state, and numerous attempts were 
made at different times to discover the actual heal- 
ing principle in the bark before success was finally 
attained. The first trial, which is worthy of atten- 1 
lion, was made in 1779, by the chemists Buguet and 
Oornette, who recognized the existence of an essen- 
tial salt, a resinous and an earthy matter in quin- 
quina bark. In 1790, Fourcroy discovered the ex- 
istence of a coloring matter, afterwards called chin- 
chona red ; and a Swedish doctor, named Westring, 
in 1800, believed that he had discovered the active 
principle in quinquina bark. E-euss, a Russian 
chemist, in 1815, was the first to give a tolerable 
analysis of it ; and about the same time, Dr. Dun- 
can, of Edinburgh, suggested that a real substance 
existed as a febrifugal principle. Dr. Gomez, a 
surgeon in the Portuguese navy, in 1816, was the 
first to isolate this principle, and he called it chiii- 
chonine. 

But the final discovery of quinine is due to the 
French chemists Pelletier and Caventou in 1820. 
They considered that a vegetable alkaloid, analo- 
gous to morphine and strychnine, existed in quin- 
quina bark ; and they afterwards discovered that 
the febrifugal principle was seated in two alkaloids, 
separate or together, in the different kinds of bark, 
called quinine and chinchonine, with the same vir- 
tues, which, however, were much more powerful in 
quinine. The discovery of these alkaloids in the 



DISCOVERY OF PERUVIAN BaRK. 341 

quinquina bark, by enabling chemists to extract the 
healing principle, has greatly increased the useful- 
ness of the drug. In small doses they promote the 
appetite and assist digestion ; and chinchonine is 
equal to quinine in mild cases of intermittent fever ; 
but in severe cases the use of quinine is absolutely 

necessary India and other countries have been 

vainly searched for a substitute for quinine, and we 
may say with as much truth now as Lambert did 
in 1820, ' This medicine, the most precious of all 
those known in the art of healing, is one of the 
greatest conquests made by man over the vegetable 
kingdom. The treasures which Peru yields, and 
which the Spaniards sought and dug out of the 
bowels of the earth, are not to be compared for 
utility with the bark of the quinquina tree, which 
they for a long time ignored ' 

The species yielding ' red bark,' the richest and 
most important of all the chinchonse, is found in 
the forests on the western slopes of Mount Chirn- 
borazo, along the banks of the rivers Chanchan, 
Chasuan, San Antonio, and their tributaries. . . 

The collection of bark in the South American 
forests was conducted from the first with the most 
reckless extravagance : no attempt worth the name 
has ever been made either with a view to the con- 
servancy or cultivation of the chinchona-trees, and 
both the complete abandonment of the forests to the 
mercy of every speculator, as in Peru, Ecuador, and 
New Granada, and the barbarous meddling legisla- 
tion of Bolivia have led to the equally destructive 
results. The bark-collector enters the forest and 



34:2 



MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 



destroys the first clump of trees he finds, without a 
thought of any measure to preserve the continuance 
of a supply of bark. Thus in Apollobaraba, where 
the trees once grew thickly round the village, no 
full-grown one is now to be found within eight or 
ten days' journey, and so utterly improvident are the 
collectors that, in the forests of Cochabamba they 







Eio Vinagre Cascade, in the Cordilleras. 



bark the tree without felling, and thus ensure its 
death ; or, if they cut it down, they actually neglect 
to take off the bark on the side touching the ground, 
to save themselves the trouble of turning the trunk 
over. 



DISCOVERY OF PERUVIAN BARK. 343 

In 1839 Dr. Boyle recommended the introduc- 
tion of the chinchona plants into India, pointing 
ont the Neilgherry and Silhet hills as suitable sites 
for the experiment, and Lord William Bentinck took 
some interest in the project ; ... . . . but this attempt 

was surrounded by difficulties, from which all other 
undertakings of a similar nature have been free. 
When tea was introduced into the Himalayan dis- 
tricts, it had been a cultivated plant in China for 
many ages, and experienced Chinese cultivators 
came with it. But the chinchona had never been 
cultivated since the discovery «of its value in 1638 ; 
it had remained a wild forest tree ; all information 
concerning it was solely derived from the observa- 
tions of European travellers who had penetrated into 
the virgin forests, and the only guidance for cul- 
tivators in India is to be found in the report of these 
travellers, and in the .experience slowly acquired by 
careful and intelligent trials. Great as these diffi- 
culties were, they were probably exceeded by the 
perils and risks of every description which must be 
encountered in collecting plants and seeds in South 
America, and conveying them to India. 

But the vast importance of the introduction of 
these plants into our Indian empire, and the inesti- 
mable benefits which would thus be conferred on the 
millions who inhabit the fever-haunted plains and 
jungles, were commensurate with the difficulties of 
the undertaking. . . . 

In 1859 my services were accepted to superin- 
tend the collection of chinchona-plants and seeds 
in South America, and their introduction into India ; 



344 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

I was authorized by Lord Stanley, then Secretary of 
State for India, to make such arrangements as 
should best ensure the complete success of an 
enterprise the result of which were expected to 
add materially to the resources of our Indian 
empire. 

By the spring of 1861, a large supply of plants 
and young seedlings was established in the Neil- 
gherry hills; and at the present moment we have 
thousands of chinchona-plants of all the valuable 
species flourishing and multiplying rapidly in 
Southern India and in Ceylon. 

Extracts from Travels in Peru and India, by Clement H. 
Makkham, F.S.A., F.R.G.S. 



XXXI. 

ANIMAL LIFE IN MOUNTAIN REGIONS. 

THE CONDOK — THE EAGLE — THE JACKDAW — THE LAG- 
OPUS — INSECTS OF THE HIGH REGIONS. 

Of all the animals that inhabit the lofty, barren 
summits of mountains, the lammergeyer of the 
Alps and the condor of the Andes are the most re- 
markable. The latter especially, as the king of 
birds, by his solitary habits, and the immense 
heights to which he soars alone, has gained an indi- 
yiduality that no other bird possesses. His starting 
place is often from peaks, where the air is too rari- 
fied for any other animal to breathe, and soaring 
sublimely thence, he moves upward and upward, 
till he becomes a mere speck in the dark blue heavens. 
Until Humboldt, in a residence of seventeen 
months amid the native mountains of this bird, 
studied his habits and peculiarities, its name was 
surrounded with a romance and mystery like that 
once attached to the ancient griffins and dragons. 
The exact truth, however, invests him with suffi- 
cient interest. He seems to scorn the earth, never 



346 



MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 



visiting it except to gratify his hunger. The rest of 
the time, a mere speck in the thin ether, or else lost 
to sight entirely, he sails all day above the region 
of thunder clouds and storms, surveying with his 
piercing eye the earth rolled out like a map below 




The Condors. 

him. Enjoying existence in an atmosphere too rare 
for any creature but himself to breathe, and in a 
temperature in which neither man nor beast could 
exist, he is surrounded with impenetrable mystery 
till he descends to the earth for food. Such is his 
keenness of sight, that even from the lofty heights 



ANIMAL LIFE IN MOUNTAIN REGIONS. 347 

at which he soars, he can detect the lifeless carcass 
of an ox, or the unsuspecting lamb on the plain be* 
low. This solitary bird then becomes gregarious, 
and quite a flock of them will gather together 
around the putrefying body. But even in this filthy 
feast they are dainty at the commencement. First 
they pluck out the eyes and then the tongue as de- 
licate morsels, when they attack the bowels and 
flesh, and never leave off the ravenous repast till 
they are so gorged that it is with difficulty they can 
fly at all. In this helpless condition they are some- 
times attacked with clubs by the natives, and cap- 
tured. The condor is not, however, always content 
with carrion, for he frequently comes down with his 
terrific swoop on sheep, deer and animals of a simi- 
lar size, and there are many stories told of infants 
being carried off by him to the mountains. 

Similar stories are told of the eagle of the Alps 
and of our own country. " The last known fact of 
this kind," says M. Pouchet in the Univ.ers, " took 
place in the Vaiais in 1838. A little girl five years 
old, called Marie Delex, was playing with one of 
her companions on a mossy slope of the mountain, 
when all at once an eagle swooped down upon her 
and carried her away in spite of the cries and pre- 
sence of her young friends. Some peasants, hear- 
ing the screams, hastened to the spot, but sought in 
vain for the child, for they found nothing but one of 
her shoes on the edge of the precipice. The child, 
however, was not carried to the eagle's nest, where 
only two eaglets were seen, surrounded by heaps of 
goat's and sheep's bones. 



348 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

It was not till two months after this that a shep- 
herd discovered the corpse of Marie Delex, fright- 
fully mutilated, and lying on a rock, half a league 
from where she had been borne off. 

An instance of this kind, which occurred in the 
autumn of 1868, is thus narrated by a teacher in 
County Sippah, Missouri : " A sad casualty occurred 
at my school a few days ago. The eagles have been 
very troublesome in the neighborhood for some time 
past, carrying off pigs, lambs, etc. No one thought 
that they would attempt to prey upon children ; but 
on Thursday, at recess, the little boys were ont some 
distance from the house, playing marbles, when the 
sport was interrupted by a large eagle swooping down 
and picking up little Jemmie Kenney, a boy of eight 
years, and flying away with him. The children 
cried out, and when I got out of the house, the ea- 
gle was so high I could just hear the child scream- 
ing. The alarm was given, and from screaming and 
shouting in the air, etc., the eagle was induced to 
drop his victim ; but his talons had been buried in 
him so deeply, and the fall was so great, that he 
was killed, as either would have been fatal." 

When pressed by hunger the condor will attack 
even larger animals. Two together will sometimes 
pounce on a bullock, and tear him with their talons, 
till exhausted with fatigue he thrusts out his tongue, 
when they immediately seize it and pull it out by 
the roots. At length the poor beast rolls bellowing 
on the plain, a helpless victim to his small but 
fierce adversaries. 

The condor has a crest something like a cock's 



ANIMAL LIFE IN MOUNTAIN REGIONS. 349 

comb. The neck is bare of feathers, except just at 
the juncture with the body, where it is encircled by 
a collar of soft, silky, white down, about two inches 
broad. The back, wings and tail are sometimes of 
a greyish black, at others of a brilliant black. 

Some of these birds are of such enormous size 
that then: extended wings reach a span of fourteen 
feet. 

The nests of these dwellers in the mountains are 
very curious objects. " Fierce and solitary," says 
M. Pouchet in the Urrivers, "the eagles suspend 
their nests in the midst of the most horrible preci- 
pices without dreading either the roar of the cata- 
ract, or the crash of the avalanche. The bulk of the 
work and the mass of the material employed are in 
proportion to the strength of the architect. The 
eyrie of the eagle is only a heap of great branches 
of trees, an entangled fagot, forming a thick, rude 
mattress, twelve to fifteen feet in circumference. 
This nest serves the couples which build it for their 
whole lives, but its size increases with years, be- 
cause the bones of all the animals brought thither 
by the parents and devoured by the hungry family, 
are heaped up round it in such a manner, that at a 
certain lapse of time the eyrie of one of these rob- 
bers becomes a pestilential charnel house. 

The nests built by the goshawk display even less 
skill ; it employs only little fagots, .and yet its nest 
is four feet in circumference." 

J. T. Headley. 



350 MOUNTAIN ADVENTTJKES. 

Birds naturally represent the population of the 
highest altitudes. In the Andes the condor ; in the 
Alps the eagle and the vulture hover over the most 
gigantic peaks. Those creatures being organized 
for long voyages are the great sailors of the atmo- 
spheric ocean, just as the terns and the petrels are 
the great sailors of the Atlantic. The jackdaw, 
that species of very black crow, which has a yellow 
beak and bright red claws, does not attain to so 
great a height in the air ; but it is, par excellence, 
the bird of high peaks, — of the regions of snows 
and of sterile summits. We find it on the top of 
Monte Kosa and of the Col du Geant, 11,373 feet 
above the sea. Collected in flocks in the windings 
and turnings of the mountain, and skimming over 
the steepest rocks, the jackdaw utters his noisy note. 
Just those places which are particularly steep and 
precipitous, and which make us giddy, have a parti- 
cular attraction for birds ; gigantic fir-trees, bell- 
towers, old steeples, the battlements of castles stand- 
ing high above deep valleys, pinnacles of cathedrals, 
isolated peaks whose foundations rise out of fright- 
ful precipices, these are their chosen dwellings ; it is 
on these heights that they build their nests. True 
cenobites of the air, condemned like those of the 
Thebais to the most frugal and austere diet, they 
delight in solitude, and appear content just in 
proportion to the distance which separates them 
from man. 

There are also more graceful birds which dwell 
in the realms of ice and frost, and enliven the 
changeless and barren landscape. The greenfinch 



ANIMAL LIFE IN MOUNTAIN REGIONS. 351 

of the snow loves this cold country so much 
that it seldonis descends to the wooded regions. 
The accentor of the Alps sometimes follows it to 
these great heights, but prefers the stony and sterile 
region which separates the zone of vegetation from 
that of perpetual snow ; others rise after them at 
times in pursuit of insects to the height of nearly 
10,000 or 11,000 feet. 

The earth has its birds as well as the air, even 
at these heights. Certain kinds only use their 
wings for a few moments at a time, and when it is 
impossible for them to walk. Such are the galli- 
naceous tribe ; and of these the snowy region has 
its own sjDecies, as it has its own sparrows. The la- 
gopus, or snow hen, is found in Iceland as well as in 
Switzerland. This bird will rise into regions of per- 
petual ice and remain nestled at great altitudes. In 
winter its plumage takes the appearance of the frost 
in which it lives. The snow is so necessary to it 
that at the approach of summer it mounts higher 
in order to find it. It nestles and rolls itself in it 
with great delight. It digs holes in order to find 
shelter from the wind, the only inconvenience which 
it fears in its icy dwelling. Any pieces of lichen or 
grain brought up by the wind suffice for its nourish- 
ment, together with insects which it hunts for its 
young ones. 

Insects are, in fact, nearly the only creatures 
which multiply in these desolate regions; and m 
this respect they are like the Polar countries. In 
the temperate zone the coleoptera are to be seen in 
greater numbers and in greater variety than in the 



352 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUEES. 

neighboring regions of the Equator. In the Arctic 
regions, during the short summer, the insects come 
out in great numbers. And in the high Alps it is 
the class of coleoptera which predominates ; they 
reach to a height of more than 9000 feet on the 
southern side, and to about 7300 feet on the oppo- 
site side. These little creatures may be discovered 
in the holes, and they are almost always carnivor- 
ous, for at so great a height vegetable nourishment 
altogether fails. Their wings are so short that they 
appear to be completely destitute of them ; so that 
they seem shielded by Nature from the great cur- 
rents of air which would infallibly carry them away 
if their wings were not, as it were, reefed in. In- 
deed other kinds, such as the neuroptera and butter- 
flies, are sometimes met with, but these have been 
carried by the wind to these heights, and they only 
perish in the snow. The neves and the ice-fields 
are covered with victims who have thus perished. 
Yet there are certain species which brave the in- 
fluence of the frost and are found even at the height 
of 12,000 or 15,000 feet. Mr. J. D. Hooker has 
observed butterflies on Mount Momay, at a height 
of more than 16,000 feet ; but, as mentioned above, 
they are only poor shipwrecked creatures whom the 
wind drives up in spite of themselves. 

The arachnidse, which in so many respects ap- 
proach the class of insects, have also the privilege of 
being able to resist the cold of mountains. One, 
almost microscopic insect of the Alps, the desoria 
glacialis, inhabits exclusively the neighborhood of 
glaciers. But really the melancholy of their abodes 



ANIMAL LIFE IN MOUNTAIN KEGIONS. 353 

seems to be reflected in the appearance of these 
little animals ; they no longer present the variety of 
tints which characterizes them elsewhere : and they 
are nearly all of a black or sombre color, which at 
the first approach deceives you as to then existence 
in the holes which they inhabit. At these heights 
the habits of insects are also modified according to 
the localities in which they live. M. P. Lioy, who 
has drawn up a philosophical sketch of the laws 
which organic nature obeys, and of which it is the 
ever-changing manifestation, remarks that the noc- 
turnal insects of the plain become diurnal in moun- 
tainous places. That is, in fact, that the elevated 
regions reproduce in some respects the conditions of 
lower places during the night ; they keep, even after 
the rising of the sun, the freshness and the shade, 
which evening alone gives in the plains. 

Such is a picture of animal life in those Alpine 
regions where the fauna gradually becomes smaller 
and smaller until at last it gives place to solitude 
and desolation. Beyond the last stage of vegeta- 
tion, beyond the extreme point to which insects and 
mammifers attain, all becomes silent and without 
inhabitant ; yet still the air is full of infusoria, and 
of microscopic anhnalculse, which the wind raises 
likes dust, and which are found in the air to an 
unknown height 

So the animal kingdom does not disappear with- 
out having, so to speak, exhausted all the organiza- 
tions compatible with the state of the soil as it be- 
comes more and more chilled, and of the atmosphere 
which becomes more and more rarefied. Birds, like 



354 MOUNTAIN ADVENTUKES. 

outposts of the great army of living beings, seem to 
defend the mountains against the invasion of death. 
The rapacious ones are, in some sort, the scouts 
the passeres, the climbers, and some of the gaUinaB, 
answer to the main body of the army ; and they 
love the intermediate region between the forests and 
the perpetual snows. The last firs, the last bushes, 
are like watch-towers from which they take observa- 
tions on the weather, and hold themselves ready to 
descend if it be threatening, or to ascend whenever 
there is any lessening of the cold. In this middle 
region the harmonious songs of the linnet and the 
nightingale have something doubtful about them ; 
but the song of the mountain birds breathes joy and 
tells of the pleasure of living. M. de Tschudi 
traces in a few lines a delicious picture of the 
existence of birds on the mountains. I translate 
freely : 

' Eather before the sky is colored with the first 
morning tints, even before a light breath of air 
announces the approach of day, while the stars still 
sparkle in the firmament, the birds give the first 
signal of the awakening of nature. First a light 
sound is heard from the fir-trees, a kind of cooing 
in which the notes gradually become more distinct. 
It gets quicker by degrees and ends by swelling 
into a harmonious chorus, rising and falhng froin 
branch to branch as the bow of the musician passes 
from the gravest chords to those which are more 
acute. Then a more ringing noise sounds out all 
at once, and voices timid at first sing each their 
characteristic notes, each species making itself 



ANIMAL LITE IN MOUNTAIN REGIONS. 355 

heard, and its own song more or less distinctly. 
The soft and melancholy nocturne has ceased ; and 
now the winged people give the sun a serenade 
as he comes to warm up again their cold, damp 
dwellings.' 

. . . One would like to live a moment of 
this aerial existence in the intermediate belt of 
earth, with just sufficient vegetation to afford a 
shelter from the mid-day heats and from the mid- 
night cold, just light enough for the eye to discern 
the magnificent panorama of mountains, and to gaze 
with delight into the firmament ; but man is less 
favored in this respect than the birds. He is not 
organized as they are to rise in the air and live in 
regions of very different atmospheric density. 
Happily, however, the difficulty which we feel in 
accomplishing a rapid and continuous ascent does 
not imply an absolute incompatiblity of the higher 
regions with human life. We may become accli- 
matized to great heights. . . . The town of 
Quito, situated at between 8000 and 9000 feet above 
the level of the sea, comprises a numerous popula- 
tion which does not appear to suffer from the ele- 
vation. Another town of the Andes, Potosi, is 
12,300 feet high, and contains more than a hundred 
thousand souls. After De Saussure had remained 
fifteen days on the top of the Alps, his pulse re- 
gained its normal motion ; and Boussingault, after 
a prolonged stay in the towns of the Andes, could 
easily bear the low temperature of the top of Chim- 
borazo. But there are precautions to be taken if 
we would with impunity transport ourselves into 



12487 85 



356 MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES. 

these high situations, where, once established, and 
in suitable circumstances, it becomes possible to 
live : we should begin by habituating ourselves gra- 
dually to the barometrical changes of the atmo- 
sphere. 

A. Maubt, Le Monde alpestre, Revue des Deux Mondes. 



THE END. 






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